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f UNITED STATES'OF AMERICA.! 



SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

Institutes and formal Classes 



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B y Jf "W V IN G "E N T. L^., 



'V 



WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY ALFRED TAYLOR. 



Thou that teachest another, teachest thou not thyself ?— St. Paul. 






aM 



New York ; 
CARLTON & LAN AH AN. 

SAN FRANCISCO: E. THOMAS. 
CINCINNATI: HITCHCOCK & WALDEN. 

SUNDAY-SCHOOL DEPARTMENT. 



cl %1 



?#H EjBRARY 

©f Congress 
Washington 



■>*# 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, by 

CARLTON & LANAHAN, 
in the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. 



INTRODUCTORY. 



The active interest which the author of this book 
has taken in urging Sunday-school teachers to a 
higher ambition, a more thorough preparation, and a 
holier consecration to the work of their Master, gives 
force and authority to what he has to say on such a 
valuable department of teacher-training as the Sunday- 
School Institute. 

With the growth of our work, and the advancement 
of the standard of excellence in teaching, the increase 
of the demand on the part of teachers for any thing 
and all things that will help them to become better 
workmen in the Lord's vineyard is as gratifying as 
it is vigorous. The time was when the teacher was 
not spending much effort on personal improvement in 
the art and science of teaching ; when good intentions 
were suffered largely to take the place of skill in im- 
parting the knowledge of divine truth ; when at gath- 
erings of Sunday-school teachers gratulation at the 
greatness and importance of the work was more 
prominent than suggestion for improvement in the 
method of carrying it on. 

The. work of the last few years has wrought a won- 
derful change. The teacher who was formerly satis- 
lied with his attainments is now asking for light on 
his teaching work. The half-competent teacher, who 



2 Introductory. 

skimmed over his lesson and gave bis scholars a 
meager amount of scriptural information from it, is 
seeking help from those whose experience is richer 
and fuller than his own. The teacher who studied 
the lesson carefully for himself, but forgot to consider 
how to impart his store of knowledge to his children, 
is taking lessons in the real teaching work — the science 
of communicating truth. Teachers who in former 
days had little more than speaking acquaintance with 
each other are now statedly holding delightfully 
profitable meetings for edification, counsel, and hard 
study. No man has contributed to this growth and 
development more than Dr. Vincent, and no means 
of growth shine more conspicuously than the Sunday- 
School Institute. 

From its necessarily transient character, the Sun- 
day-School Institute has its imperfections. Held at 
long intervals, and only for a few sessions at a time, 
its efficiency for training can hardly compare with that 
of a permanent institution holding its stated sessions 
through a term of months or years. We may hope that 
the march of events in Sunday-school work will some 
day bring a permanent Normal Class into every Church 
as a part of the Church operations. Such an adjunct 
to Church effort, so well described in the second part 
♦of this work, will be inestimably valuable, whether 
conducted by the pastor, the superintendent, or some 
other fully competent person heartily in sympathy 
with the real progress and development of Gospel ef- 
fort in behalf of our children. Until such a perma- 
nent Church Institute becomes general we must de- 
pend on such Institutes as we can hold from time to 
time, as they have been held. But let them be man- 
aged with all the wisdom which experience can bring 



Introductory. 3 

to bear upon them. Failures, as well as successes, 
must throw light on the best ways of conducting them. 
The continual growth of the training work must 
modify their character as Institute after Institute is 
held. In this, as in every other branch of Christian 
work,- we must strive for constant growth. The Insti- 
tute must not be only a means of entertainment, but 
a school of real study. While no effort should be 
spared to make it so interesting as to attract all whom 
it can reach, the fact should be uppermost in the 
minds of all who are engaged in it that it is not a 
convention for the awakening of enthusiasm, but a 
training-place for those who want to improve. 

This book will be especially valuable to those who 
contemplate holding Institutes, and seek direction as 
to how the time of the sessions may he occupied to 
the best advantage. The chief infirmity of many an 
Institute has been that its promoters were short of in- 
formation concerning arrangement and management. 
For the lack of just such hints as are here given, in- 
congruous subjects have been infelicitously grouped 
together, and discussed by brethren whose chief qual- 
ification for thus taking up the time of their audience 
was the fact that they occupied certain stations in the 
community which compelled their public recognition 
in this way. A committee having an Institute in 
charge can, by the use of this volume, avoid coming 
in contact with such a stumbling-block. The pro- 
grammes which are here given are of themselves val- 
uable hints, and their importance in tracing the 
growth of the Institute work is so great that it was a 
happy thought thus to put them on record. The 
eminently practical tone of every page of suggestion 
and experience is so marked that the earnest and con- 



4 Introductory. 

scientious teacher seeking counsel and help cannot fail 
to find it. 

Teacher ! our work is but in its infancy. While 
we rejoice in its past growth, triumph in its present 
condition, and glory in its coming prospects, let us, 
with every lesson we study, and every hour we spend 
in teaching, more and more feel our ignorance, our 
infirmities, and our need of going to our blessed 
Teacher and Guide for light and help. Oar Father 
will kindly take his children by the hand and help us 
do our work so as to enjoy his favor. Our Redeemer 
will journey with us and make our hearts burn as he 
lightens our path. Our Comforter will help our 
infirmities, and give us the joy and the peace with 
which he crowns the faithful. u A?id let the beauty 
of the Lord our God be upon us : and establish thou 
the work of our hands upon us ; yea, the work of our 
hands establish thou UP A. T. 



CONTENTS. 



THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL TEACHERS' INSTITUTE. 

Page 

I. The Place and Aim op the Sunday-School 9 

II. The Sunday-School Teacher Needs Preparation 10 

III. What Preparation is Needed 13 

IV. Facilities for Preparation Needed 16 

Y. Sunday-School Institutes 19 

VI. Sunday-School Institute Exercises 23 

VII. Unity in the Programme 45 

VIII. The Superintendents' Institute 49 

IX. The Local Sunday-School Teachers' Institute 56 

X. A Course of Institute Study 59 

XI. Sunday-School Institute Programme 63 

XII. Preparation for an Institute 109 

XIII. The Officers of an Institute 114 

XIV. Sunday-School Topics 117 

SUNDAY-SCHOOL NORMAL CLASS. 

I. The Church Normal Class 129 

II. The Seminary " " 133 

III. The Normal Department 137 

IV. The Course of Study 142 

V. The Programme 151 

Appendix 171 

National Convention Announced for April, 1872 183 



PAET I. 

Mt JNnfog-JMwl Wmkm' f nsstitut*. 



THE 

SUNDAY-SCHOOL TEACHERS' INSTITUTE. 



L 

THE PLACE AID AIM OF THE SMDAY-SCHOOL. 



1. It is the mission of the Church of Jesus Christ 
to secure the regeneration and sanctiiieation of men, 
making them " disciples," training them in Christian 
truth, experience, and service. The Church is the 
school of eternity, where immortal souls are taught, 
and thus prepared for the fellowship and service of 
heaven. 

2. This blessed work of regeneration and culture 
is to be accomplished, under the agency of the Holy 
Spirit, through the ministry of the Christian home ; 
the pleadings, admonitions, and instructions of the 
pulpit; the meditations and divine communings of 
the closet; the discipline and experience of life; the 
inspiring service of the social meeting ; and last, 
though by no means least, through the diligent, 
prayerful study and teaching of the word of God in 
the school of the Church. Let us call this last the 
true Church-school, the Bible-school, the Bible- 
Sekvice of the Christian Church. 

3. The Mission Sunday-School is that temporary 
substitute for the regular appliances of the Church 



10 Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 

which in its germ existed in the Jewish system, and 
is provided for by specific scriptural commands, but 
which in its present form was projected at a com- 
paratively recent date. It is designed to do the 
parents' work for orphans and for those whose homes 
are silent on religious matters. It is designed to 
bring the Gospel to those who do not hear the word 
preached. It proposes to inaugurate the Church 
with all its appliances where hitherto unknown, and 
especially to re-establish the religious influence of 
home. The Mission Sunday-School is the Evangelist. 
The Church School is the Pastor. The one " dis- 
ciples" men, the other "instructs" them. Both 
contemplate the same ultimate object — salvation. 
Both depend upon one agent — the Holy Ghost. Both 
use one text-book — the word of God. 



II. 

THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL TEACHER NEEDS PREPARATION. 



1. It is difficult to overestimate the importance of 
the Sunday-school teacher's call. He comes before 
his pupil in the parent's place, with the preacher's 
theme — to do a parent's and a pastor's work. 

2. First of all, the Sunday-school teacher needs 
personal piety. No one can teach the Gospel of the 
Son of God without some experience of his grace. 
Can the blind teach painting ? Can the deaf teach 
music? We remember who asked the question, and 
to whom : " Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest 
not these things % " 



Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 11 

3. But with grace the teacher needs knowledge. His 
success depends largely upon his personal relations 
with Jesus. But much also depends upon his fond- 
ness for, and familiarity with, the word of God, and the 
eagerness and aptness with which he comes to teach 
it. The divine grace reaches the heart through the 
divine truth. Man is "born again," and "sancti- 
fied," by the word of God. The teacher must himself* 
have a knowledge of the truth to be taught. 

4. He should understand the principles involved in 
the work of teaching. God's grace operating upon 
character through truth communicated to the intel- 
lect does not ignore the laws of intellectual action. 
"When God called his ministers he prepared them by 
fire — a symbol of force. The fire of Pentecost was a 
tongue of fire — a symbol of speech. It rested upon 
the heads of the apostles, thus by a flaming sign 
indicating the true power of the gospel ministry — 
man's intellect, enlightened and vivified by the divine 
wisdom and love. 

Plain men, indeed, were the fishermen of Galilee 
who first taught the Gospel, but they were not un- 
educated men. They may not have been familiar 
with the subtleties of Greek philosophy, nor were 
they ranked as scholars in the then approved Jewish 
schools. But they were men of native strength, 
taught in the Hebrew Scriptures. They enjoyed 
intimate fellowship with, the wisest of teachers for 
three years. They were earnest men ; and then, there 
came upon them a supernatural baptism. This gave 
them power over the dogmatists of Judea, the false 
philosophers of Greece, and the masses of the people, 
both Jews and Greeks. 

5. The standard of secular education in this coun- 



1 2 Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 

try is so high, and the appliances employed so perfect, 
that the Sabbath-school must elevate its standard if it 
would maintain its power. Children measure their 
teachers in these days. Many of them are able to do 
it. No sincerity of character or earnestness of effort 
can compensate for a poorly prepared lesson, or for 
habitual incompetency on the part of a Sunday- 
school teacher. It is a lamentable hinderance to 
one's success in this field to have his scholars con- 
trasting his matter and style of teaching with those 
of ordinary teachers in the public schools, or detecting 
the sophisms or superficial evasions of his explana- 
tions. It is not only that the teacher suffers in the 
estimation of his scholars, but the system of truth he 
represents also suffers loss. 

6. All truth is divine. We may regard the 
teachers of natural science and mathematics in our 
public schools and academies as so many embassadors 
of God to the soul of the child. In the Sunday- 
school we have charge of another department of 
divine teaching. Ours is the ethical and spiritual, 
and we deal with intellect. We seek to exalt and 
sanctify it — to connect it with a " pure conscience " 
and a redeemed heart, that it may become the throne 
of a " faith unfeigned." The secular teachers tell 
the little ones of God in nature ; we, of God in grace. 
They conduct them through the outer courts of the 
cosmos ; we lead them beyond the vail, into the in- 
nermost sanctuary, where God's voice is heard, and 
where man may commune face to face with him. 
We must, therefore, be " apt to teach." We are 
to show ourselves " approved " — " workmen that 
need not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the 
word of truth." Wisely did the apostle suggest to 



Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 13 

Timothy, " Give attendance to reading," ... u to 
doctrine." 

All these considerations impel us to offer our plea 
in behalf of a more thorough preparation on the part 
of Sunday-school teachers for their work. 



III. 

WHAT PREPARATION IS NEEDED ! 



1. The Sunday-school teacher should at least have 
a tolerable acquaintance with what are familiarly 
called the " common English branches." The 
reasons for this are too obvious to require a state- 
ment here. We are acquainted with persons who, 
notwithstanding great ignorance and habitual vio- 
lation of the laws of English grammar, are most 
successful Sunday-school teachers. These cases are 
exceptional. They show what consecrated hearts 
may do. When some one complained to Rowland 
Hill of the blunders in speech of one of his plain 
preachers, Hill replied, " Never mind his breaking 
grammar, if the Lord helps him to break the poor 
sinner's heart." So we say concerning this work of 
Sunday-school teaching. Let the truth be taught by 
earnest hearts. Let the living water be dipped from 
the fountain and distributed to thirsty souls. If this 
can be done in a golden chalice, well. If God ap- 
point for the service some marred or misshapen 
pitcher, let it also drop into the crystal depths, and 
be borne dripping with living waters to the thirsty 
lips. But these exceptions in the line of divine 



14 Sunday- School Teacheks' Institute. * 

Providence do not annul the law of human prepara- 
tion. So we place as one of the first and plainest 
requirements in the teacher's culture a tolerable 
knowledge of his own language and of the best way 
to use it. 

2. The teacher should know something about the 
Book which he makes his text-book — the Holy 
Bible. He should know something of its construc- 
tion ; how, and when, and w T here, its several parts 
were prepared ; in what languages and for what 
specific purpose. He should know also something 
about the " canon " and the several " versions," espe- 
cially our own precious English version ; the evidences 
of genuineness and authenticity the Holy Scrip- 
tures possess, together with the laws of interpretation 
and criticism which are applied by wise biblical 
scholars to this sacred volume — all these should have 
a place in our Sunday-school teacher's preparation. 

3. He should study the contents of the Book. 
The truth is here : he should explore it. The Bible 
is not a mint with the gold and silver in piles of 
completed coin, stamped and polished, and ready for 
easy appropriation. It is a mountain rather than a 
mint. In its heart are the veins of gold. These are 
to be sought after and dug out with patience, prayer, 
and painstaking. 

It is not enough to know what persons and places 
and facts and principles are contained in a specific 
lesson. The teacher should have a previous and 
general knowledge of the leading characters, the his- 
toric outlines and details, the geographical facts, the 
chronology, the doctrinal system and ethical principles 
of the Bible. He should have a reservoir of knowledge 
which specific lessons would tap and utilize. He 



Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 15 

should be ready for unexpected questions on col- 
lateral themes from his class. He would certainly 
by this process be able to understand the meaning of 
each lesson much more thoroughly than if he were 
dependent upon its contents and the present examina- 
tion alone for his knowledge of the subjects it in- 
troduces to his pupils. 

4. As already intimated, the teacher must know 
the peculiarities of mind and its marvelous processes. 
He must know how to excite this miud to independ- 
ent activity. He alone is a true teacher who in 
accordance with the laws of mental and spiritual life 
trains the pupil to put forth intellectual efforts at 
will in the acquisition and appropriation of the 
truth. Now this whole question of education — the 
principles and methods involved in it — is one of vast 
moment. Parents and Sabbath-school teachers, as 
well as secular educators, should give it the most 
candid and careful and exhaustive examination. 

5. The teacher needs more than a knowledge of 
the philosophy of teaching; more than the statement 
of the formal modes of teaching. What he most 
needs here is practical illustration. He should be 
permitted to examine, compare, and discuss various 
plans of teaching. He needs practice under the eye 
of experienced educators. There should be some 
place to which he may bring the difficulties which 
have embarrassed him, that, if possible, they may be 
removed. 

2 



16 Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 

IV. 

FACILITIES FOE PREPARATION NEEDED. 



1. The labor of the Sunday-school teacher is volun- 
tary, and performed under the pressure of secular 
occupations. Mothers come to the Sunday-school, as 
teachers, from the nursery, merchants and clerks from 
the counter and counting-room, mechanics from the 
shop, farmers from the field, lawyers from the bar, 
jurists from. the bench, physicians from the bed-side, 
students from the recitation-room. They are engaged 
six sevenths of their time in callings wholly uncon- 
nected with the specific work of the Sabbath-school. 
To perform it they turn aside from their habitual 
paths of thought and effort. Many of them are 
wholly deficient in mental discipline, and, with no 
time for preparation, must make sad work with the 
brain of the pupil and the Book of God on the 
Sabbath. 

2. For other professions regular schools of prepara- 
tion are established, and a curriculum appointed. In 
the school of medicine, law, or theology, the student 
gives his whole time to study. He secures the funds 
requisite, abandons every other enterprise, and de- 
votes all his energies to the one work. In the secular 
normal schools the same singleness of purpose and 
occupation gives the student power. He is a man of 
one work, and he succeeds. In the same way, and 
for the same reason, county or district institutes are 



Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 17 

efficient. Where have we any thing in the Sunday- 
school department comparable to these Teachers'' In- 
stitutes of our public school system ? And yet, how 
much more important the truth we teach, and the 
work we contemplate ; and how much more inefficient 
and unprepared the persons now professing to teach 
this important truth and do this great work! 

3. Yet we can have no permanent theological 
normal school for the training of Sunday-school 
teachers. The candidates have neither time nor 
means for such a course of preparation. Shall we 
therefore abandon all attempts at organizing a com- 
mon plan for the culture of teachers ? Shall we leave 
it to the schools themselves to devise methods adapted 
to their needs? Because we cannot enjoy the priv- 
ileges of the university, shall we despise proffered 
academic aid ? If daily toil keeps the apprentice 
boy from the advantages of the public school, may he 
not be partially compensated for his loss by the 
evening school of his ward or village ? 

4. The necessity indicated may not be felt by 
individual schools which enjoy the advantages of a 
good teachers' meeting. Usually in such schools 
only the most efficient persons are appointed to the 
teacher's office, and these are regularly and carefully 
taught, that they may profitably teach ; and yet the 
best teachers' meeting we ever knew failed to become 
an effective training-school for teachers. Business to 
be transacted, specific lessons to be prepared for the 
ensuing Sabbath, and a certain amount of devotional 
service to be engaged in, rendered the pursuit of a 
regular course of study impracticable. There are 
various exercises which the teacher needs, and studies 
which he should prosecute, all of which are prohibited 



18 Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 

by the pressure of current preparations. A clergy- 
man may increase in theological knowledge and 
pulpit efficiency while engaged in appointed clerical 
labors ; but, before all this, there is a certain pre- 
paratory training which fits him for his subsequent 
efforts, and which is indispensable to his success. 
This is no more a necessity of the preacher than of 
the teacher. Even onr best schools, then, would be 
benefited by a general plan of teacher-training. 

5. But we must remember that first-class Sabbath- 
schools, with well-ordered teachers' meetings, are 
rare and exceptional. In many schools the teachers' 
meeting is limited to a small minority of those en- 
gaged in the Sabbath work. In some schools this 
meeting is held annually, and then for the election of 
officers ; or monthly, and merely for the transaction 
of business. In all schools of this class teachers are 
expected to do their work without other specific prep- 
aration than they voluntarily give at home to the 
lesson, and with no previous training whatever. 

6. Suppose, then, that any one school has a corps 
of good teachers and a good teachers' meeting, and 
suppose it does not need any outside help in the 
culture of its teachers, the whole duty of that school 
is not done when it becomes in itself strong, studious, 
and successful. I assert that no school can be thus 
independent by virtue of its own internal strength ; 
for it still owes sympathy, counsel, and assistance 
to the weaker and less successful schools of its 
neighborhood. 

7. Whether, therefore, we look at the best or the 
poorest of our schools, the conclusion is forced upon 
us: We must have a general system for the training 
of teachers — a svstem that will secure the establish- 



Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 19 

ment of regular weekly teachers' meetings where 
they are not now held, and provide, in some form or 
other, a complete preparatory course of training in 
connection with those schools which have all along 
sustained the teachers' meeting. 

8. Conventions, local and general, may render as- 
sistance by the dissemination of Sunday-school ideas, 
the comparison of plans, the discussion of principles, 
and the occasional illustration of approved methods. 
But the best convention we ever attended left an im- 
portant work undone. Mere conventions, in which 
whole counties, and even States, are represented, 
cannot meet the demand we have specified. The 
introduction of institute exercises, or normal methods, 
into these conventions, has been a means of improving 
their character. But in the midst of these occasional 
and exceptional exercises we have asked, Is there 
not yet something more practical — some plan better 
adapted to the necessities of the work ? 



V. 

■SUNDAY- SCHOOL INSTITUTES. 



1. The friends of popular education many years 
ago felt the imperative demand for some plan or 
organization by which a higher standard of culture 
should he attained by those professing to teach the 
rudiments of secular knowledge to the children of the 
land. Dr. William E. Channing, in an address de- 
livered at the Ocleon in Boston in 1837. thus plead 



20 Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 

for an institution in which teachers should be pro- 
fessionally trained : 

i; We need an institution for the formation of better 
teachers, and until this step is taken we can make no 
important progress. The most crying want in this 
commonwealth is the want of accomplished teachers. 
We boast of our schools, but our schools do com- 
paratively little for want of educated instructors. 
"Without good teaching a school is but a name. An 
institution for training men to train the young would 
be a fountain of living waters, sending forth streams 
to refresh present and future ages. As yet onr legis- 
lators have denied to the poor and laboring classes 
this principal means of their elevation. We trust 
they will not always prove blind to the highest inter- 
est of the State. We want better teachers and more 
teachers for all classes of society^— for rich and poor, 
for children and adults. One of the surest signs of 
the regeneration of society will be the elevation of 
the art of teaching to the highest rank in the com- 
munity. . . . Socrates is now regarded as the greatest 
man in an age of great men. The name of king 
has grown dim before that of apostle. To teach, 
whether by word or action, is the highest function on 
earth." 

2. In the autumn of 1839 Mr. Barnard held " the 
first of the class of meetings now known as ' Teach- 
ers' Institutes,' in Connecticut." It met in Hartford 
" under the invitation and preliminary arrangements 
of the Secretary of the Board of Commissioners of 
Common Schools." Mr. Barnard made this experi- 
ment in order " to show the practicability of making 
some provision for the better qualification of common 
school teachers, by giving the opportunity to revise 



Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 21 

and extend their knowledge of the studies usually 
pursued in district schools, and of the best method of 
school arrangements, instruction, and government, 
under the recitations and lectures of experienced 
and well-known teachers and educators." These 
meetings had long been known in the world of 
common schools before they were employed by 
Sunday-school people. Great good was produced by 
them. Teachers were quickened and instructed ; 
mere drones dropped out of the ranks. The teacher's 
profession was exalted. 

3. The success of Teachers' Institutes in advancing 
the interests of secular education throughout the 
country suggested to Sunday-school workers the 
practicability and desirableness of adopting a similar 
method for the promotion of the higher and nobler 
ends which this institution contemplates. For sev- 
eral years the Sunday-School Institute has been in 
successful operation. 

4. But what is an institute? To this question 
Mr. Barnard, in his " Report to the Board of Regents 
of Normal Schools in the State of Wisconsin," gives 
the following reply : " A Teachers' Institute is a 
gathering of teachers — old and young, experienced 
and inexperienced, of both sexes and of schools of 
different grades — in such number as will develop the 
sympathies and power of a common pursuit, and yet 
not so large as to exclude the freedom of individual 
action ; for a period of time long enough to admit 
of a systematic plan of operations, and yet not so 
protracted as to prove a burdensome expense, or an 
interruption to other engagements ; under the direc- 
tion of men whose only claim to respect and con- 
tinued attention must be their experience and 



22 Sukd ay- School Teachers' Institute. 

acknowledged success in the subjects assigned them, 
and in a course of instruction at once theoretical and 
practical, combined with opportunities of inquiry, 
discussion, and familiar conversation." 

5. To illustrate this definition let me answer 
another question : What arc Sunday-school institute 
exercises ? They differ from convention speeches just 
as an actual plow differs from the picture of a plow. 
They require work instead of talk. At an institute 
some one teaches a Bible class, instead of telling how 
a Bible class should be taught. The teacher is 
watched, criticised, his methods commended or 
condemned. Some one resolves the institute into a 
school, and shows how in his own school he calls to 
order, opens, conducts, and closes a session. This 
gives rise to a comparison of programmes and plans. 
A teacher or minister gives a lesson in sacred history 
and geography. All present are students. He uses 
the blackboard and maps ; communicates facts, elicits 
them again, drills the institute in concert answers, 
etc. Again, the institute becomes a Bible class, and 
spends two hours or more in the critical study of 
some biblical selection. An infant or elementary 
class is brought in, and an experienced teacher gives 
a specimen lesson. The institute listens to carefully 
prepared lectures on various subjects, as " Illustration 
in teaching ;" " The art of asking questions ;" " The 
mind of a child;" "Memory — its power and cultiva- 
tion ;" " The teacher in the preparation of his 
lesson ;" " Bible architecture ;" " Palestine ;" " Man- 
ners and customs of the Bible times," etc., etc. These 
and many other exercises may be introduced. The 
practical advantages are apparent. 



Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 23 



VI. 

SUED AY- SCHOOL INSTITUTE EXERCISES. 



Let ns now present some of the exercises ap- 
propriate to a Sunday-School Institute. It is not to 
be expected that their practical value will be esti- 
mated alike by all who read our suggestions. In the 
hands of one worker a plan may be exceedingly 
useful, which other men would never adopt. We 
therefore place before our readers a large variety of 
methods. Should these suggest other and original 
plans not here indicated, and more effective than any 
of these, the object of the author will have been 
attained. 

1. Opening Services. — The religious devotions 
of the institute should receive careful attention, espe- 
cially the initiatory devotions, when the key-note is 
to be struck — the plane of thought and sentiment for 
the whole session to be determined. No careless ap- 
pointment should here be made. The dull routine 
of a "prayer-meeting hour" is to be avoided. A 
topic being announced beforehand on the programme, 
all the Scripture readings, remarks, songs and prayers 
of the service should have reference to it. The 
following topics have been thus used with admirable 
results: "The Spirit of God now present;" "Our 
Homes ;" " The Preachers of the Word ;" " The Un- 
converted Scholars ;" " Senior Scholars," etc, etc. 
The reading of several Scripture selections, alternat- 



24 Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 

ing with prayer and singing, will tend to instruct as 
well as to guide the teachers in their devotions. 

2. The Entire Work. — It will be desirable at 
times, where the institute is a short one, to present 
in very condensed form the whole range of practical 
Sunday-school work in a single session. We knew 
this to be done at an institute in Ohio, when the fol- 
lowing addresses, each occupying seven minutes, were 
delivered. Of course every thing was very much 
condensed. Each speaker occupied all his time, but 
his limitation compelled careful elimination and 
abridgment. He said only his best things, and said 
them in the shortest and plainest way possible. 

The Entire Work. [Seven Minute Addresses.] 

1. Words from Parents to the Sunday-School, Rev. 
C. A. Van Anda. 

2. Words from the Sunday-School to Parents, 
William Mitchell, Esq. 

3. Words from the Pulpit to the Sunday-School, 
Rev. P. P. Ingalls. 

4. Words from the Sunday-School to the Pulpit, 
Rev. E. House. 

5. The Order of Exercises in Sunday-School, Rev. 

C. Z. Case. 

6. Bible Study in Sunday-School, Rev. J. II. 
Yincent. 

7. The Infant Scholars in Sunday-School, Rev. 

D. H. Moke. 

8. Senior Scholars in Sunday-School, Professor 
Smith. 

9. The Teachers' Meeting, Rev. H. M. Simpson. 
10. The Sunday-School felt during the Week, Dr. 

Walden. 
3. Institute Conversations. — Long speeches are 



Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 25 

the bane of Conventions. In Sunday-school institutes 
the j should always be discouraged. If instead of 
speech-making we could occasionally have conversa- 
tions our work would be much more profitable. 
Let the following serve as good examples of what 
we mean : 

}so. 1. Teachers' Meeting. 

Mr. A. A live Sunday-school must have a teachers' 
meeting. 

Mr. B. But it is so difficult to get all the teachers 
to attend. 

Mr'C. If only two come they may spend an hour 
profitably. 

Mr. A. But we must be careful not to find fault 
and complain because so few are there. 

Mr. 0. Should teachers be selected with reference 
to their residence near the place of meeting? 

Mr. A. Certainly not. The main question is one 
of qualification. 

*" Mr. D. Indifferent and incompetent teachers re- 
siding near the place of meeting will be less likely to 
attend than the earnest teacher who lives farther 
away. 

Mr. E. Teachers at a distance who, on account of 
bad weather, rough roads, family cares, ill health, 
etc., are unable to attend the teachers' meeting reg- 
ularly, may promise to spend at home in prayerful 
and careful study of the lesson the hour devoted to 
the meeting. This would interest them in the meet- 
iug, and. guarantee their attendance at the earliest 
opportunity. 

Mr. B. What exercises are appropriate to a 
teachers' meeting? 



26 Sunday- School Teachees' Institute. 

Mr. F. The recitation by every teacher from 
memory of the next Sabbath's lesson. 

Mr. E. The hour should be spent, not on the 
subject-matter of the lessons, bnt on methods. 

Mr. A. I understand that the teachers' meeting is 
not a Bible class. 

Mr. G. It is rather to test the teacher's familiarity 
with the lesson, and, by illustrating methods of teach- 
ing, to aid him in his work. 

Mr. B. Why not bring a class of juvenile pupils 
and have them taught by a teacher % 

Mr. G. Then let the rest criticize the plan of the 
teacher. 

Mr. A. Should this criticism take place before or 
after the class is dismissed. 

Mr. G. Certainly after. Children should not hear 
criticisms before their teacher. 



No. 2. How to get Attention. 

Mr. A. AYe can do nothing with a class unless we 
have the attention. 

Mr. B. The attention, too, of every pupil. 

Mr. A. All the time. How shall we secure this? 

Miss C. By being awake ourselves. 

Miss E. By being ourselves absorbingly interested 
in the scholars and in the lesson. 

Mr. D. By having something neio to tell. 

Mr. F. In an emergency I would rise and stand 
while teaching. 

Mr. A. I should like a blackboard, or at least a 
slate, on which to record some outline or initial letters 
to excite curiosity. 

Miss G. The class should see that the teacher fullv 



Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 27 

understands his lesson and is independent of book and 
lesson-paper. 

Mr. II. His eyes should be free. 

Mr. I. Pie should use his will silently, and thus 
summon himself and command his class. 

Miss E. The true teacher will address questions 
and remarks to persons most remote and to those who 
are most inattentive. 

Mr. J. I use pictures a great deal in getting the 
attention of little people. 

Mr. K. They may be used with older classes. 

Miss L. I keep three or four little stories on hand 
to illustrate the lesson, but keep them in reserve for 
use when the interest flags a little. I can sometimes 
go through the lesson without using more than one 
of the stories. 

Mr. A. If I can succeed in getting my scholars to 
question me I find no difficulty in getting attention. 

4. Sunday-School Miscellany. — An hour may 
be set apart for every body to say something on any 
and all subjects, the time of each speaker being lim- 
ited to one, two, or three minutes. A single sentence, 
a word of advice, a bit of experience, a very short 
incident, an objection, a difficulty, a brief quotation 
from Scripture or poetry — so will the time pass by 
pleasantly and profitably to all. Written suggestions 
may also be forwarded to the Conductor's desk to be 
read during this exercise. 

5. The Promise Meeting. — This is a suggestion 
of that successful evangelist, D. L. Moody, of Chicago. 
We saw him conduct such a meeting at the California 
State Sun day- School Convention. Any one was per- 
mitted to rise and repeat or read one of the " ex- 
ceeding great and precious promises" of Scripture.. 



28 Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 

An expository or experimental sentence was allowed, 
but no long speeches. As passage after passage of 
the pure word dropped from living lips upon the ears 
of that vast assembly, it seemed as though a ; ' shower 
of diamonds" was falling from the open heavens. 
Our institutes cannot have too much of God's word 
in them, nor can they err by introducing warm per- 
sonal religious experience to illustrate and enforce that 
word. 

6. The Lecture-Lesson combines the peculiarities 
of a regular lecture and a recitation. The lecturer fol- 
lows his outline of thought, but is at liberty to stop 
at any time and question his audience, subject them 
to a regular examination of the ground he has covered 
in his lecture, while they also are at liberty to arrest 
him by questions at any step of his discourse. What 
goes by the name of Bible-class teaching in many 
adult classes is little more than a lecture-lesson, and 
perhaps too often it is lecture without lesson — dis- 
course without drill — preaching rather than teaching. 
The advantages of the lecture-lesson in an institute 
are apparent in the carefulness of preparation and 
of statement which it secures from the teacher, and 
the attention which it is apt to beget in the audi- 
ence. 

7. Institute Catechism.— The eighth annual ses- 
sion of the Detroit District Institute was held in 
Wayne, Mich., October 13th and llrtli. The follow- 
ing "Institute Catechism" was sent beforehand to 
all teachers : 

The teachers in attendance are requested and ex- 
pected to answer the following questions, writing the 
answer opposite the question. lS"o names are to be 
furnished or read. The list will be distributed and 



Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 29 

collected promiscuously, and no one will know the 
author of any of the answers made. 

Careful and candid answers are desired. 

(1.) How many scholars are there in your class ? — 

(2.) How many of them have you visited at their 
houses within a year ? .... 

(3.) How many hours a week on an average do 
you give to studying the lesson ? .... 

(4.) Have you any Bible maps? ...... How 

many ? .... 

(5.) Have you a Bible Dictionary ? Whose ? 

(6.) Do you use a Commentary ? . . . . Whose ? . . . . 

(7.) What other helps clo you have or use in prepar- 
ing your lessons ? 



(8.) What books on the subject of Sunday-school 
teaching have you read ? 

(9.) Do you ever take maps or pictures into your 
class to show to the scholars ? .... 

(10.) Do you keep a blank book and scrap book to 
note down and preserve illustrations for future use ? . . 

(11.) Have you ever used a paper or slate or pencil 
as an aid to illustrate lessons in your class? .... 

(12.) How many from your class have united with 
the Church during the last year? .... 

8. Test-Questions or Report Questions. — In- 
stead of spending w T hole hours in hearing dull "re- 
ports" from ten, twenty, or fifty different schools, let 
a few pointed questions be put by the conductor, and 
answered promptly and briefly by representatives from 
the several schools. For example, How many schools 
are here represented? Pastors rise. If the pastor 
be absent let the superintendent rise. If neither 
pastor nor superintendent be here will a teacher rise 
to represent his school ? You now have a representa- 



30 Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 

tion on the floor from every school. These persons 
are requested to answer the questions as they may be 
announced by the Conductor. "How long is your 
Sunday-school session I " Replies come in something 
like the following from the audience : " First Presby- 
terian, one hour and thirty minutes.*' " Second Bap- 
tist, one hour and ten minutes/' "Third Method- 
ist, generally two hours, although the time on the pro- 
gramme is one hour and fifty minutes." " How much 
time do you spend in actual Bible study T' An- 
swers: "Forty minutes;" "Twenty-five minutes;" 
"Including general review, thirty-five;" "Twenty- 
seven;" "Twenty," etc. "Do you have regular 
teachers' meetings for the study of the lessons?" 
"Do you hold Sunday-school concerts I " 

9. The Question Drawer needs no more than a 
mention. The whole audience is permitted to ash, 
in writing, any question on any phase of Sunday- 
school work. The person whose answer is desired 
may be indicated on the slip containing the question, 
otherwise the Conductor may reply himself or per- 
mit any one present to do so. 

10. Serial Questions.— On the published pro- 
gramme there may appear several questions, which, 
being circulated before the institute commences, will 
excite some thought. To these questions the pro- 
gramme may request " written replies to be presented 
at the first session." The following are specimens : 

(1.) What are the duties of the family to the Sun- 
day-school ? 

(2.) What are the duties of the Pastor to the Sun- 
day-school? 

(3.) What are the duties of Sunday-school officers 
and teachers to the Church i 



Sunday- School Teacheks' Institute. 31 

(4.) What are the duties of the Sunday-school 
teacher to the family ? 

(5.) How may teachers' meetings be made most 
useful ? 

(6.) What are the principal defects in our Sunday- 
school system ? 

(7.) How shall we retain youth and adults as mem- 
bers of the Sunday-school? 

Answers having been reported, the institute may 
appoint " Councils " of two or three persons each to 
examine, arrange, and present in due form the an- 
swers given to each question. For example, at the 
meeting where the seven questions above were asked 
we find the following item in the programme : 

Appointment of " Councils " on the answers pre- 
sented : 

(1.) On Home Help in Sunday-school. 

(2.) The Pastor and the Sunday-school. 

(3.) The Sunday-schooLand the Church. 

(4.) The Sunday-school Teacher's duties to the 
Family. 

(5.) On Teachers' Meetings. 

(6.) On Sunday-school defects. 

(7.) On retaining youth and adults in Sunday- 
school. 

Another use of Serial Questions will be seen on 
Programme, page 81. 

11. Institute Lecture. — The right man having 
been engaged for the purpose, give him the best hour 
of the day or evening for a lecture on some important 
and practical subject. Let his lecture be followed by 
either the Question Drawer, or Institute Con- 
versation, or both. 

12. Specimen Teaching,— One can do any piece 

. 3 



32 Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 

of work the better for having first seen the same thing 
done by another. Yonng teachers of the Bible 
should enjoy frequent opportunities of this kind in 
their special work. We place such observation of 
actual teaching only second in practical value to the 
young teacher's practice under the eye and subject 
to the keen criticism of the accomplished instructor. 
The very best use of " specimen teaching " is that 
proposed not long since by an efficient Sunday-school- 
Superintendent, who, feeling the need of raising up 
a better class of young teachers, thus proposes to 
utilize the weekly services of his very best teachers. 

" I propose to appoint in my school a corps of assist- 
ant teachers. These assistant teachers are to be se- 
lected from our oldest scholars, and are each to sit 
and recite with some one of the classes for two or 
three Sundays, and then with another class, and so 
on, until each assistant shall have had an opportunity 
of noting the methods of management and instruction 
adopted by a majority of the regular teachers. They 
are always to recite and take part in the lesson in the 
class with which they sit, so as not to embarrass the 
teacher. They are to take private notes, and com- 
pare for themselves the different methods of instruc- 
tion, culling out the best features in each. With the 
practical information thus obtained, revised and 
strengthened by a further comparison with the sys- 
tems reported in the published works upon the sub- 
ject, these assistants will be prepared to enter upon 
their work with great advantages, and we shall never 
be at a loss to supply a class with an efficient instruct- 
or, nor to provide a substitute for an absent teacher. 

" These assistants are to pledge themselves never, 
either publicly or privately, to make comparisons be- 



Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 33 

tween the methods of the teachers whom they watch, 
but are to keep wholly and sacredly to themselves 
the result of their observations. They may, at the 
end of their probation, give a synoptical memorandum 
of the different modes noticed, and of the excellences 
and deficiencies observed, provided it is done in such 
a manner as not to connect the one or the other with 
any individual. These precautions seem necessary, 
in order to prevent the possibility of ill-feeling or em- 
barrassment among the regular teachers from a criti- 
cism of their efforts." 

13. Specimen Bible Class. — The local and perma- 
nent Sunday-school institute should provide specimen 
lessons. Resolve the whole institute into a class, and 
appoint some one to conduct a lesson. Assign thirty 
or forty minutes to the service, after which permit 
and encourage exhaustive oral or written criticism. . 

14 Comparison of Methods. — Occasionally re- 
solve the institute into three, five, or more classes, each 
uuder a teacher selected beforehand, so as to permit 
a careful preparation. At a given signal let all the 
classes commence the study of the same lesson, the 
full text of which may be printed on the programme. 
The time assigned to this exercise having expired, 
allow each teacher to report briefly the subject-matter 
and method of his teaching. After all have made 
their reports, elicit written and anonymous criticisms 
from the whole institute, carefully suppressing every 
thing which would indicate the teacher criticised. 
This will guarantee the largest liberty, avoid giving 
offense, and make duly prominent the ordinary mis- 
takes which occur in Sunday-school teaching. After 
this criticism the conductor should allow the teachers 
another opportunity to speak, and should himself 



34 Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 

call attention to the principal practical lessons to be 
drawn from the excellences and defects of the whole 
exercise. 

15. The Model Class. — If the audience be not too 
large it may be well to place a youths', or inter- 
mediate, or infant class on the platform, to be taught 
by some competent person. If criticism follow it 
would be well to dismiss the class, that the good 
impressions of the lesson be not dissipated by the 
objections to the teacher's "method which a frank 
criticism might call forth. Classes of different grades 
may be taught the same lesson by different persons 
during a single session. 

16. Illustrative Specimens. — Better than the 
formal specimen recitation is the introduction into a 
regular address of class exercises designed to illustrate 
the speaker's theory. For example, a teacher lectures 
on Infant Sunday-school work. He develops a 
principle, and, turning to the class placed by his side 
on the platform, illustrates it in a brief exercise. 
Suppose he recommends elliptical teaching. He 
turns at once to his little pupils, and, telling them a 
story, secures their assistance in re-telling it accord- 
ing to the elliptical plan. So he illustrates question- 
ing, concert replies, physical movements, blackboard 
drills, etc. 

17. Specimen teachers' meetings may be held 
before a small teachers' institute. 

18. A Specimen normal class session on such 
an occasion will illustrate a most important part of 
our modern Sunday-school work. 

19. A Specimen Sunday-school session may 
be conducted by the institute, the teachers constituting 
the classes ; or children may be invited, instructed be- 



Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 35 

forehand in the order to be observed, and then taught 
by regular teachers. The Superintendent, publicly 
examining the school, may dismiss it in due form. 
An illustration of such an exercise will be found 
on page 80. 

Let us here say to conductors and teachers in all 
" specimen exercises" before an institute, avoid making 
a mere show of the children or of your method. Espe- 
cially avoid all pretending " that this is Sunday," that 
" these men and women are little children." Don't 
teach an imaginary class, and go through the farce 
of personal applications and appeals to " play " chil- 
dren. TVe have seen some of the shallowest and most 
puerile performances in the name of " specimen exer- 
cises " before institutes. Do not let us, however, mis- 
take the abuse for the thing itself, and ignore a serv- 
ice which, properly managed, must do incalculable 
good to young superintendents and teachers. Deter- 
mine just what the specimen is to be, a lecture, a 
lecture-lesson, a theological discussion, a simultaneous 
class drill, a preparation class, a teachers' class, or a 
regular juvenile recitation. Then in all earnestness 
and self-forgetfulness carry out your plan. 

We are convinced that as a general thing speci- 
men illustrations of the character recommended will 
not succeed before large and popular audiences. Let 
our evenings at great institutes be spent in addresses 
of a general character, and let us give specimens be-' 
fore those, and those only, who are directly interested. 
The distinction between the " General Meetings " 
and "Normal Class Exercises " will be observed in 
the programme of the First Brooklyn Institute. (See 
page 92.) 

20. Map Drawing. — All maps being removed from 



36 Sunday-School Teachers' Institute. 

the walls, the Conductor requests the institute to 
prepare rough draughts of one or more maps, con- 
taining the following places, the names of which he 
writes on the blackboard : 

First Map. — Mesopotamia, Nineveh, Babylon, Eu- 
phrates, Tigris, Persian Gulf. 

Second Map. — Gulf of Suez, Akabah, Mount Sinai, 
Suez, Mount Hor, Kadesh-Barnea, Cairo. 

Third Map. — Dead Sea, Jerusalem, Bethlehem, 
Nazareth, Sea of Galilee, Jordan. 

Fourth Map. — Ephesus, Smyrna, Troas, Samo- 
thraeia, Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea, Athens, 
Corinth. There is scarcely a limit to the sub- 
jects. 

Five or ten minutes should be given the institute 
to prepare. The maps should then be collected, and 
the best and poorest of them reproduced by the con- 
ductor upon the blackboard. 

21. A Practice-Preparation. — A lesson from 
Scripture having been selected and printed in full on 
the programme, let the institute spend an hour or more 
in (1.) Selecting the Golden Text / (2.) In ascertain- 
ing the central thought; (3.) In framing questions ; 
(4.) In the choice of illustrations ; (5.) In the topiccd 
analysis ; (6.) In pictorial representation or word- 
picturing of the incident. This may seem at first 
thought a dry and uninteresting exercise. It may, 
indeed, be unpopular with a large audience who as- 
semble merely for an evening entertainment ; but a 
small institute made up of earnest teachers will find 
intense interest and permanent profit in such practical 
training. This very thing is what teachers are re- 
quired to do every week at home. The suggestions 
made by the best workers at an institute in this prac- 



Sunday-School Teachers' Institute. 37 

tice-preparation must be invaluable to the majority 
of teachers in attendance. 

Under this head we are reminded of a report made 
to " The Sunday-School Journal " of an exercise on 
the use of illustrations at a " monthly institute." 

Subject: "How to illustrate a lesson. This was 
a sort of conversation, and one that was full of 
profit. First of all a subject was mentioned, and 
facts, fables, Bible stories, and other incidents which 
would illustrate it were called for. We worked for 
some time on two subjects, 'God's ways of an- 
swering prayer,' and the 4 Progressive tendency 
of sin.' How much there is in such an exercise! 
We forgot all embarrassment, and spoke out or wrote 
out the illustrations that came pouring into our 
minds. I did not think I could think so fast on any 
theme. Then we took up facts to see what could be 
illustrated by them. This was even more delightful 
than the other exercises. Here are the points given 
us. They do not seem to be much, but they are full 
of meat and meaning. (1.) An elegant library, in an 
elegant case. Yery excellent lock. Good key. But 
the key is lost ; cannot be found. Case cannot be 
opened. What is all this like ? What moral or spirit- 
ual lesson may be drawn from it ? (2.) A copyist in a 
picture gallery, looking so closely and constantly at 
the picture he would reproduce, and laboring faith- 
fully to get an exact imitation ; what does he teach 
us ? (3.) The carpet weavers of the Gobelin tapestry 
do not sit on the side of the tapestry which bears the 
finished picture, but behind it, where it has a rough 
look all the while. What is this like ? (4.) I passed 
a house and grounds with no trees. I passed another 
full of trees and shrubs and flowers. Passing the 



38 Sunday-School Teacheks' Institute. 

latter heard sweet songs of birds. There were no 
birds about the former house." 

22. Class Studies in Bible History.— Suppose 
an hour to be assigned to the following or some other 
historical exercise, (the plan to be printed on the pro- 
gramme:) 

(1.) Scripture Selections. — Exod. i, 7-14 ; iv, 27-31 ; 
xii, 40-42 ; xiii, 17, 18 ; Num. xxxiii, 1-48. [Instead 
of the last named chapter read Psalm cvi.] 

(2.) Questions. — [Answers may be given in writing.] 

1.) Why did the Israelites forsake Egypt ? 

2.) Might not the same results have been secured 
by leaving them there? If not, why not ? 

3.) What was the route taken by the Israelites from 
Egypt to Canaan ? 

4.) Why did they not take a shorter route to 
Canaan % 

5.) What divine attributes are especially revealed 
through this part of the Jewish history ? 

6.) What human imperfections and sins and 
virtue are exhibited in this history ? 

(3.) Map Exercise on " The wanderings of Israel. 1 ' 

(4.) Simultaneous Review.— In this exercise the 
whole institute should join with heartiness. If at 
first the answers are few and feeble, let the con- 
ductor patiently but firmly insist upon prompt, loud, 
simultaneous answers. A very little tact will insure 
gratifying success. 

23. An Analytical Exercise in the books of 
Scripture. — At an institute held several years ago 
one hour was given to the analysis of " Matthew." The 
leader gave a brief lecture upon the author and his 
book, calling upon the institute to substantiate the 
several points by Scripture references, admitting 



Sunday- School Teacheks' Institute. 39 

questions and the expression of dissenting or varying 
opinions all the way through. After this he placed 
the outline on the blackboard, as follows : 



1. Genealogy of Jesus. 

I. Author. II. Book. 2. Infancy and youth. 

1. Names. 1. Object. 3. Episode : The Baptist. 

2. Country. 2. Contents. -j 4. Introduction to His ministry.- 

3. Citv. ' 3. Size. 5. In Galilee. 

4. Business. 4. Style. 6. Galilee to Jerusalem. 

5. Character. 5. Language. I 7. In Jerusalem. 

6. Sources of 
Information. 

This analysis, with the facts it elicits, is copied by 
each teacher. The lecturer or conductor drills the 
institute upon it. All answer in concert. Then 
word after word is erased from the board, and from 
memory the whole analysis is repeated by the class. 

24. A Single Subject might occupy the attention 
of a two days' institute, supplying all the variety 
needed to keep up the interest, and concentrating all 
the energies of the workers upon one subject so as to 
secure thoroughness and completeness. Suppose, for 
example, that an institute spent six sessions on The 
Wanderings of Israel. In this you have (1.) Ge- 
ographical Exercises on Egypt, Arabia, and Ca- 
naan. (2.) Exercises on Ancient Manners and Cus- 
toms. (3.) Object lessons, blackboard outlines, etc. 
(4.) Specimen infant, juvenile and adult class exercises 
may be found in abundance in this most interesting 
department of the Bible. (5.) What more suggestive 
and inspiring topics for the prayer-meetings and 
opening exercises than are suggested by the pil- 
grimage to Canaan? (6.) Moses, as a model super- 
intendent, would furnish a most fruitful theme, 
opening up the whole question of organization and 



40 Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 

administration, and giving admirable illustrations of 
true trust in God. 

25. Object and Blackboard Lessons. — We be- 
lieve in them. They should be encouraged in the in- 
stitutes. We never reject a good theory because 
weak people abuse it. Let the criticisms upon all 
such exhibitions, however, in an institute be very 
candid and searching. 

26. The USS of Text-books in a Sunday-school 
institute should be encouraged. A few pages from 
Pardee, Inglis, Hart, Eggleston, or other standard 
Sunday-school authors may be read, and discussiou 
follow. Or on a given subject many authorities may 
be taken up. At an institute for thorough work in two 
days (by taking half an hour at a time) several small 
tracts on Sunday-school teaching may be read and 
discussed. A normal class in the institute may be 
required to recite lessons from such text-books. See 
programme, page 81. For a Normal Class Cate- 
chism see page 117. 

27. Sacred Memories of Sacred Places. — The 
topic for a half-hour may be u Sacred Memories of 
Gethsemane," u Sacred Memories of Bethlehem," u Of 
the Temple," etc. Let each person be expected to 
furnish some fact. Use maps. Kecord the facts stated 
on the blackboard and in chronological order. Read 
Scripture references in concert. A descriptive passage 
from a standard author relating to the place or its as- 
sociations may be read by a member of the institute. 

28. Temple Studies, or investigations into the ar- 
chitecture, furniture, utensils, services, offices, spiritual 
meanings, etc., of the Jewish tabernacle and temple. 

29. Pictorial Illustrations may be extensively 
and profitably used in the Sunday-school institute. In 



Sunday-School Teachers' Institute. 41 

our Annual Report may be found a list of colored 
diagrams large enough to be seen in all parts of a 
large lecture room or church. These are often em- 
ployed by lecturers on sacred history and archaeology, 
and we have seen them used with fine effect in Sun- 
day-school conventions and institutes. 

30. The Biblical Museum.— The diagrams al- 
ready described render it practicable for the Sunday- 
school workers in any community to open for a few days 
a Biblical museum which will contribute to a better 
understanding of the Holy Scriptures. Curiosities 
from the Holy Land may be borrowed for the occa- 
sion. Addresses may be delivered by persons who 
have visited the far East. In this way teachers, 
parents, and senior scholars will be interested and 
instructed. An exhibition like this in connection 
with an institute would be of good service. 

The North-western Sunday-School Teachers' In- 
stitute was organized in Chicago in the winter of 
1864 and 1865. A " winter course" of institute lec- 
tures and other exercises w T as carried through. One 
evening was devoted to the study of Jerusalem. A 
concert recitation on the gates, walls, etc., of the 
Holy City was conducted by Eev. J. H. Yincent. 
Short addresses by Dr. Yandoren, Tuthill King, Esq., 
of Chicago, and Rev. Dr.' Kerr, of Rockford, all of 
whom had visited Palestine, were delivered. A va- 
riety of maps, pictures, panoramic views, etc., adorned 
the walls. Three or four tables were filled with curi- 
osities from the Holy Land : articles made of Olive 
wood, water from the Jordan, oriental wearing ap- 
parel, shells from the Sea of Galilee, flowers, speci- 
mens of Syrian wheat and barley, lamps, pipes, 
shoes, Damascus "kob-kobs," sand from Lebanon, 



42 Sunday- School Teachees' Institute. 

mosaic fragments from Tabor, etc. One table con- 
tained a large number of Oriental pictures, engrav- 
ings, photographs, and stereographs. A stereoscope 
of large size contained thirty-six beautiful views of 
Rome, Egypt, Palestine, and Jerusalem.* 

At the Anniversary of the Sunday-School Union (of 
the Methodist Episcopal Church) held in Columbus, 
Ohio, October, 1869, the Normal Department of 
the Union opened its Biblical Museum in the lec- 
ture room of the Town-street Methodist Episcopal 
Church. One of the local daily papers thus de- 
scribes it : 

" In connection with the Anniversary Institute 
there is placed in the large lecture room of the Town- 
street Methodist Episcopal Church, for the inspection 
of all visitors attending the institute, the very large 
and valuable archaeological collection of Palestine an- 
tiquities, which comprises more than one hundred and 
fifty of the photographs of the Palestine Exploration 
Fund, two hundred highly-colored diagrams illustra- 
tive of the Eastern manners and customs, and an- 
tiquities of Egypt, Nineveh, Assyria, etc., the beauti- 
ful photographs of the Ordnance Survey of Jerusalem, 
the best and most approved maps, charts, etc., of the 
Eastern lands. We also found models of Eastern 
objects of interest, a model of the Temple of Solomon, 
a model of the Jewish Tabernacle upon the exact 
scale of four cubits to an inch, a model of an Eastern 
khan, or inn ; also, one of the city of Jerusalem and 
its surrounding country. 

" Collected in one room were complete Eastern 
costumes ; also valuable relics, as lamps, bottles, shells, 
woods, water, and such a variety of those things as 

* " The Sundar-School Quarterly," July, 1865. 



Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 43 

are designed to teach and unfold Scripture truth as 
cannot be recalled. 

" These are a part of the collection belonging to 
the Normal Department of the Sunday-School Union, 
a new, but rapidly-developing branch of the Method- 
ist Sunday-School Union. The Rev. H. M. Simpson, 
of New Jersey, who showed to us the collection, is 
the Secretary of the Department, which has for its 
object the collection of objects illustrating Bible 
archaeology. 

" These diagrams, maps, and other valuable helps 
are loaned extensively to the Sunday-schools who 
need them, in accordance with the regulations of the 
Department — as stated in the Annual Report. The 
whole thing is an indication 'of the earnest purpose 
of the Church to advance its standard of Sunday-school 
learning and sound education to greater perfection.' 5 

Mr. A. O. Yan Lennep, of New York, (76 East 
Ninth-street,) has one of the largest collections of 
pictures, specimens, models, Sunday-school requisites, 
maps, Oriental curiosities, etc., in the United States. 
He delivers popular and instructive lectures (illus- 
trated by maps, paintings, archaeological objects) be- 
fore Conventions, Institutes, Normal Classes, and 
Sunday-schools. 

31. Essays by ladies or^gentlemen at an institute 
should be short and practical. Essays need not al- 
ways be read by the author of them. Some person 
with a clear, strong voice, who is a good reader, may 
be requested to give them to the audience. 

32. Mutual Confessions, — This describes a serv- 
ice held at a certain institute which more than any 
other stirred up intense feeling. The question was 
asked at the morning session, "What are your per- 



44 Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 

sonal habits concerning the word of God ? For what 
objects, in what way, and how much do you read it \ '? 
Written and anonymous answers were presented 
in the afternoon from "Mothers," "Sunday-school 
Teachers," Pastors," " Private Christians," and others. 
All seemed to feel anew the claims of God's word, 
and to be amazed at their strange neglect of it. 

33. Subdivision of Institutes. — It is a good 
thing to devote an afternoon to separate meetings of 
the several classes of workers. In one place let all 
Pastors convene, in another place the Superintend- 
ents. Hold one meeting for Librarians and Secre- 
taries, another for Senior or Adult Class Teachers, an- 
other for Juvenile Class Teachers, and last, though by 
no means least in importance, a meeting for Infant 
Class Teachers. 

34. Social Moments. — All who attend the ses- 
sions of a hard working institute will appreciate the 
announcement from the conductor's desk once at 
least during every session : " Ten minutes will now 
be spent in social conversation." 

35. Institute Discipline. — This will be made 
clear by examining Programme, page 89. The 
series of exercises published and circulated before 
the institute becomes virtually a text-book of prepa- 
ration, and the occasional drills may illustrate meth- 
ods of teaching. 

36. Service of Consecration. — At the final ses- 
sion of an institute it will generally be appropriate 
to close with a special season of singing and prayer. 
We have seen hundreds of teachers rise in token of 
their entering into covenant to labor more faithfully 
in the Sunday-school than ever before. For the form 
of the covenant See page 140. 



Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 45 



VII. 

UNITY Iff THE PROGRAMME, 



Unity is essential to the highest effect of a sermon, 
lecture, or other production. Limiting each thought 
to the specific object for which it is introduced, it 
holds the mind at every stage of a discussion to the 
end proposed. Thus it tends to the logical treat- 
ment of a subject, and prevents giving undue promi- 
nence to subordinate points. It deepens the impres- 
sion which truth makes, for every new phase of the 
subject is a reiteration of the leading idea. The sys- 
tematic investigation which it secures makes previous 
knowledge available. Thus unity aids in the reten- 
tion, aggregation, and, of course, in the communica- 
tion of truth. To it also we owe the admirable effect 
of climax. The sculptor aims at unity in his groups 
of marble. We trace it in the paintings of the old 
masters. In oratorios and symphonies movements 
the most diverse are connected by this unifying 
principle. There is economy in unity. The ex- 
penditure of force which occurs in a series of mental 
efforts may be economized by so connecting these 
efforts as to prevent sudden reactions and difficult 
transitions. 

In the public religious services that one attends for 
two hours every seven days unity is indispensable. 
It is worth, more than variety, or a wide range of 
thought. Our wisest ministers make every part of 



46 Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 

the Church service contribute to the leading idea of 
the sermon. The instrumental voluntary is, by a pre- 
vious understanding between pulpit and choir, ani- 
mated by the idea which breathes through every 
hymn, is the burden of every prayer, shines from the 
Scripture lesson, and which, in the sermon, lays under 
requisition the charms of rhetoric, the force of logic, 
and the graces of elocution. 

The same principle should characterize the sessions 
of the Sunday-school. The "key-note" of the day, 
sounded from the lesson, should awaken its echoes 
alike in the adult and infant departments, and every 
service, from the opening to the closing, be pitched 
in accord with it. And if this " central idea" could 
find a place in the pulpit, the school, the social 
meeting, and the family for that day, what a con- 
centration of moral power might be experienced ! 

Let us apply the same principle to the Sunday- 
School Institute, which, by its discussions and illustra- 
tions of Sunday-school topics, proposes to educate the 
teachers of the Church. The infrequency of these 
meetings makes the economy of unity more impor- 
tant. The programme should have educating power 
in it. It should present a logical outline of the 
subjects to be examined, assigning to each its ap- 
propriate place. Undue prominence is often given 
to subordinate and comparatively unimportant topics, 
while the great questions too frequently receive but a 
superficial notice. 

It will be readily conceded by all that if the 
institute sessions could be continued through several 
weeks such unity might be attained. We think, for 
reasons already stated, that the shorter the session 
the greater the need of it. This conceded, we see 



Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 47 

the necessity for great care in the preparation 
of the programme. This work should be committed 
to no novice or bungler. Effect is too often sacrificed 
for want of a well-matured, logical plan of work. 
This is true of too many sermons, and we fear of 
most Sunday-school sessions. And we have often 
asked whether the efficiency of an institute might 
not have been vastly increased by a little more 
attention to the plan of work laid out in the pro- 
gramme. 

We propose the ground- work of a programme in 
which the principle under consideration will be 
illustrated, and this we do with some hesitancy, and 
with the conviction that our effort must fall far short 
of perfection. 

We hold our institutes in order, primarily, to 
awaken an interest in the great object of the Sunday- 
school on the part of pastors, superintendents, 
teachers, parents, and also on the part of those 
Church members usually indifferent to this important 
department of labor. Now, the chief object of the 
Church Sunday-school should be the thorough, prac- 
tical, devotional study of the word of God. The 
Sunday-school is essentially the Bible school. Its 
text-book is the Bible. Its teachers must be Bible 
scholars. Its most important service is Bible study. 
The organization of the school should be consum- 
mated with this fact constantly in view. v Its order 
of exercises for each Sabbath should be framed upon 
this idea. We wish that the very title of the school 
might indicate not the mere accident of time, but the 
principal service for which it exists. 

In harmony with this thought, the key-note of a 

certain institute programme was, " The Book of 

4 



48 Sunday- School Teacheks' Institute. 

God. 15 After the title-page, and immediately before 
the detailed programme, the following Scheme was 
inserted : 

I. The Church and the Book. 

1. The dependence of the Church upon the Book. 

2. The use of the Book. (1.) In the closet; (2.) In 
the family • (3.) In the pttlpit ; (4.) In the school. 

II. The Study of the Book. 

1. How prepare to study a Bible lesson. (1.) Mo- 
tives ; (2.) General knowledge ; (3.) Apparatus. 

2. How study a Bible lesson ? (1.) The facts ;- 
(2.) The difficulties ; (3.) The lessons. 

III. Teaching the Book. 

1. What is it to teach ? 

2. Methods and systems of teaching. 

3. Bules for preparing to teach a lesson, the con- 
tents of which are already mastered. 

4. Class-teaching. (1.) Arresting attention ; 
(2.) Reading the lesson ; (3.) Memorizing; (4.) Ques- 
tioning ; (5.) Drawing lesson ; (6.) Analysis ; (7.) Il- 
lustrations ; (8.) Application ; (9.) Topical arrange- 
ment ; (10.) y Use of slate and blackboard. 

5. Simultaneous teaching. (1.) Advantages ; 
(2.) Dangers ; (3.) Bules ; (4.) Teaching catechism ; 
(5.) Missionary concerts ; (6.) General review. 

6. Illustrations of above in lessons on Scripture in- 
cidents, parables, epistles, sacred geography, history, 
manners, and customs, etc. 



Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 49 



IV. Organization and Management of the 
Bible School. 

Y. Week-day Influence of the Bible School. 

1. Pastoral work of the superintendents and 
teachers. 

2. The Sunday-school teacher at the social meet- 
ings of the Church during the week. 

3. Sunday-school accessories. 

4. Home, how it may help or hinder. 

This furnishes material enough for an institute one 
week in duration, and yet, in two days, the outlines 
of it may be presented to the teachers of a com- 
munity. We suggest that in every possible way our 
institute managers should economize the precious 
time given them, and we ask whether this arrange- 
ment of the programme is not worthy of careful con- 
sideration in view of this necessity. 



VIII 

THE SUPERINTENDENT'S INSTITUTE. 



Merchants, mechanics, and professional men unite 
in permanent associations, or assemble in occasional 
conventions, for deliberation and discussion upon 
subjects relating to their respective departments of 
labor. Oneness of aim begets oneness of spirit. 
The consultation and comparison of views, the state- 
ment and solution of difficulties which are promoted 



50 Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 

by such convention or association, deepen enthusiasm 
and increase efficiency. 

Sunday-school superintendents should do the same 
thing. Some months ago a so-called " Superin- 
tendent's Sociable," but to all intents and purposes 
an institute, was held in Xew York City, in Grace 
Mission Rooms. The reproduction of a carefully 
prepared report of -that occasion may suffice to de- 
scribe and commend such gatherings. 

More than eighty superintendents were in attend- 
ance. Mr. Ralph Wells called the meeting to order, 
and introduced the Rev. J. H. Vincent as chairman 
for the evening. Mr. Wells' address of welcome was 
characteristic, racy, warm, and practical. "We meet 
to touch elbows. The ward politicians know what 
the phrase means. The devil sha n't have all the 
advantages of touching elbows. Let our words and 
our prayers be short to-night. Let us feel at home. 
Let us help lift up each other." After singing, 
prayer was offered by Theophilus A. Brouwer, Esq. 
The president suggested that we are here to " strike 
for higher wages " by working more diligently, and 
that we must go to the " ten-hour " system, that is, 
at least ten hours a week devoted by each superin- 
tendent to the study of Sunday-school lessons. 

He then called for schools holding regular teachers' 
meetings. About sixty responded, and about as 
many reported the use of uniform lessons. About 
twenty schools hold teachers' prayer-meetings. Some 
hold the meeting before school on Sabbath morning, 
say for fifteen minutes. "It's like taking breakfast 
before going to work." Some hold this meeting 
after school and invite scholars to remain. 

After singing, the question of teachers' meetings 



Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 51 

was taken up. Mr. Sutton reported : " Meeting 
Friday evening in a large dining-room — teachers 
seated around the table. Average attendance within 
two of the whole number of teachers. We try to so 
conduct the exercises that the teachers may go away 
furnished with both material and method." Mr. 
Bell, of the Bethel : " Saturday evening at 7*45. 
Fifteen minutes spent socially, then the lesson studied 
for forty-five minutes. I vary my method, some- 
times teaching teachers as if they were children, 
again as adults," etc. 

Mr. Wells : "Was it easy when you began % " 

Mr. Bell : " No ; very, very difficult ; but we have 
held our meetings through the whole year, even 
through July and August." 

Dr. Perry, of Morning Star school, said they elected 
a teacher each evening to conduct the meeting. Mr. 
Stevens, of Fif'ty-third-street Baptist, reported that 
their Tuesday evening lecture was their teachers' 
meeting. The superintendent of Rev. Mr. Wilson's 
school (Presbyterian) said, " Our Pastor teaches the 
teachers himself." Fourteen pastors were reported 
as doing the same. A. A. Smith, of Brooklyn : " No 
teachers' meeting. Shall fight for it still. Our 
Pastor, Dr. Duryea, holds a sort of lecture Bible class 
on Wednesday evening. But no questions are asked, 
and we have no conference in reference to the real 
work." 

Mr. Wells : " Hold on, Brother Smith. I should 
never have had a teachers' meeting if I had known 
when I was whipped. First year I had only five 
teachers ; second year ten. We held on with ' Dutch 
grit.' I have no objection to the pastor leading the 
class, but it is better to have the superintendent do 



52 Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 

it ; be can get down better to where the teachers are.* 
"We hold our teachers' meeting in the afternoon of a 
week day. I know ' it is impossible for gentlemen 
to come then,' but they do come. I personally speak 
to employers, and secure their consent to have their 
clerks come. They cannot lose by it. Again, I re- 
gard teachers' meetings as great helps to the making 
of good mothers." 

The Rev. Dr. Hatt reported a public Bible service , 
on Monday evening for teachers and older scholars, 
instead of a regular teachers' meeting. It has been 
in operation for six months, and with increasing at- 
tendance and interest. 

After singing, the difficulties of superintendents 
were called for. Among the most prominent, were : 

1. " Want of hearty co-operation of all the teach- 
ers." 

2. "Principally," said a superintendent, "in my- 
self; I don't study the lesson enough during the 
week." 

3. "The superintendent doesn't strike the key- 
note — Jesus." 

4. " The superintendent does not pray enough." 

5. " Want of converted teachers." 

6. " When elected superintendent I read a list of 
seventeen teachers' names, all of whom had resolved 
to leave if I were elected. Rather disheartening? 
But I went to work, and none resigned. I try to 
cultivate a social spirit among teachers. I speak to 
every teacher and shake hands every Sabbath." 

* To this doctrine of our excellent Brother Wells we cannot sub- 
scribe. We think pastors can "get down" to the teachers even more 
easily than the superintendents. If they cannot they need training 
in that important element of a pastor's success,, and the teachers' class 
may be a good practice-school for such pastors. 



Sunday-School Teachers' Institute. 53 

Here the proceedings were interrupted by a call 
to the chapel below, where an elegant collation of 
coffee, sandwiches, cakes, ice cream, etc, had been 
provided through the generosity of the Grace Mission 
workers. 

Half an hour was spent in the discussion of these 
refreshments, and in delightful social fellowship. At 
the stroke of the bell a motion was made inviting 
Mr. Wells to give two or three blackboard exercises. 
A hearty vote called out our noble friend. He gave 
blackboard illustrations on " Asleep in Jesus," " Thou, 
God, seest me," " The other side," and " The fount- 
ain." After a hearty song the discussion of the 
.superintendents' difficulties was resumed. 

7. " Hard to get parents and adults generally to 
the evening meetings of our mission schools." 

Remarks were here offered on the opening of read- 
ing rooms, with writing materials, games, lectures on 
secular subjects, etc. ; on visiting the homes of the 
children and relieving their physical wants. Mr. 
Bell gave an interesting report of the Bethel. " We 
are not a Sunday-school. We are not a Church. 
We have a reading-room for working men. It is 
open every evening except Sunday. We have also a 
reading-room for boys. We do not make the me- 
chanics' reading-room a religious room, but it leads 
men upstairs. At our Sunday evening services we 
have no sermon, but three short speeches. Morton, 
of Chicago, the one-armed soldier, is in charge. 
Wednesday nights we have popular entertainments, 
concerts, exhibitions, etc., charging fifteen cents ad- 
mission." 

Mr. Wells : " Grace Mission is ahead of the Bethel. 
We give our entertainments for five cents a ticket. 



54 Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 

Said a rough man in this neighborhood who could 
not be brought in by our prayer-meetings, but suc- 
cumbed when we began the concerts, ' You've got 
the right end now. These are the things to fetch us 
fellows.' " In reply to the question, " How can super- 
intendents secure the co-operation of their teachers ? " 
Mr. Wells said, "Love them like every thing, and 
get them to love each other. We have forty-seven 
teachers. We have bought forty- seven little Scrip- 
ture text-books for every day in the year. Every 
teacher's birthday is indicated in all these forty-seven 
books, and we have a rule that on each other's birth- 
day we are to pray especially for each other. So 
when my birthday comes I know that there are 
forty-six teachers praying for me." 

After singing "Blest be the tie," etc., Mr. J. B. 
Tyler said, "We need a higher appreciation of our 
work. After the war General C. B. Fisk re-entered 
the Sunday-school work, and said, 'I have been pro- 
moted from the office of major-general to that of 
Sunday-school superintendent.' We should also be 
polite to our teachers. Call on them. Especially 
call on New Year's day. Give more attention to the 
sensitive than any others. Make as much as possible 
of teachers ; cheer them, and commend whatever is 
worthy of commendation. Better encourage too 
much than not enough. We should pray for our 
teachers." 

8. A " superintendent for fifteen years " said, " I've 
just found out my principal difficulty — the want of 
just such a meeting as this." 

Kev. Alfred Taylor, editor of " The Sunday-School 
Workman," said that in reply to the institute ques- 
tion, " Have you any obstacles ? " a superintendent 



Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 55 

replied in writing, " Yes, plenty of them, but we go 
right over them." 

Some one suggested that "our home schools are 
undervalued. We need as much earnestness there as 
in the mission field. The guards about kings' houses 
in Europe are better dressed than other soldiers, but 
they are not play soldiers. T have endeavored to 
make my Church school as much as possible like the 
mission schools." 

10. Another difficulty was named by some one, 
"Making the standard of diligence high enough 
among the scholars to insure preparation during the 
week." 

11. " How shall we get more teachers ? " An- 
swer: "By special prayer. Converts in the adult 
classes may soon be set at work. We do not have 
faith enough in God's power to save souls." 

12. " How manage the rough boys?" Answer by 
Mr. Herrick : " I invited my class to my own house. 
I took them in at the basement door. First I washed 
myself, and then had them follow my example. Had 
refreshments and a good time. The next meeting I 
took them up into the parlor, somebody sang for them, 
and we played a few games together." 

The interest of the meeting continued until the 
lateness of the hour compelled adjournment. 

After singing and the benediction the meeting 
adjourned. The occasion was a rare one, and will 
long be remembered by all present. 



56 Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 

IX. 

THE LOCAL SUNDAY-SCHOOL TEACHERS' INSTITUTE. 



1. Few country Churches are strong enough to 
sustain a normal class or institute. Many Churches, 
sufficiently strong for the work, lack enterprise. A 
union of schools and Churches is in such cases tem- 
porarily advisable. Denominational integrity will 
not be impaired by the most active co-operation in 
this labor. The training required by a teacher in 
one Church is required by teachers of every other 
Church. The ability possessed by one may be ex- 
erted in behalf of all, with no loss of prestige or 
power to the original. The association will excite 
healthful emulation. One feature of the institute 
system is, the provision of a biblical library for the 
use of teachers. Five schools in a town can more 
easily establish a teachers' library than one alone can. 

% From these considerations, the union of teach- 
ers, schools, and Churches, in the work of teacher- 
training, is cordially recommended. Organize an in- 
stitute, hold monthly meetings, perhaps an afternoon 
and evening session once a month ; or provision may 
be made for twenty sessions a year, one each month, 
with four extra sessions in the spring, and four more 
in the fall. 

3. We furnish a brief Constitution for such an in- 
stitute as above recommended. 



Sunday- School Teachees' Institute. 57 

CONSTITUTION OF THE SUNDAY- SCHOOL 

TEACHERS' INSTITUTE. 

Aeticle I. — Name. 

This organization shall be known as the 

Sunday-School Teachers' Institute. 

Aeticle II. — Objects. 

The encouragement of a higher culture on the part 
of Sunday-school teachers, and the provision of a 
system of training by which this end can be accom- 
plished. 

Aeticle III. — Officees. 

Its officers shall consist of a President, Vice- 
President, Secretary, Treasurer, and Librarian, who, 
with a committee of live persons representing differ- 
ent denominations, (if it is a Union Institute,) shall 
constitute the Board of Managers, all of whom shall 
be elected annually, on the second Monday evening 
of , by a general meeting of the Institute. 

Aeticle TV. — Duties of Officees. 

Such as are usually performed by these officers in 
similar associations. [These may be specified if de- 
sired.] 

Aeticle Y. — Committees. 

The following permanent committees shall be ap- 
pointed by the Board of Managers : (1.) The Com- 
mittee on Business, consisting of three persons, whose 
duty it shall be to prepare (one or two) courses of 
lectures, lessons, and other exercises for the year. 
(2.) The Committee on Rooms, whose duty it shall be 
to provide and keep in order a suitable room for the 
meetings of the Institute, with such furniture, books, 



58 Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 

and other apparatus as may be required in the oper- 
ations of the Institute. (3.) The Committee on Ex- 
amination, for graduation. 

Article YI. — Members. 

Pastors, Sunday-school officers, teachers, and senior 

scholars may, by the payment of a year for each 

person, become members of this Institute. 

Article YII. — Course of Study. 

The Institute year shall be divided into two Courses : 
(1.) The Winter Course, commencing on the second 
Monday evening of January, and continuing for thir- 
teen weeks, with one session each week. (2.) The 
Summer Course, which shall comprise a monthly 
meeting from the first of May to the first of Decem- 
ber, inclusive, with a regular Institute meeting in 
September, to continue three days, holding at least 
two sessions a day, or, the Institute course of study 
shall comprise fifty exercises, (as prescribed on page 
17.) These shall be continued through two years, the 

Institute meeting monthly on the , with special 

sessions in the spring and autumn. 

Article YIII. — Certificates. 

Persons attending the Institute sessions regularly 
through two years, and passing a satisfactory exam- 
ination upon the subjects studied, shall receive a cer- 
tificate to that effect, signed by the President, the 
Secretary, and the Committee of Examination. 

Article IX. — Amendments. 
[Make such provisions as are deemed advisable.] 



Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 59 

X. 

A COURSE OF INSTITUTE STUDY. 



1. In addition to the several elements of a Sunday- 
school institute already described, we greatly need a 
Sunday-school teachers' curriculum,, one which enter- 
prising teachers, and candidates from our senior 
classes for the teachers' office, may pursue. This 
course of study should cover, in a general way, the 
field of Biblical investigation most important to the 
ordinary teacher. It may then be woven into pro- 
grammes of local institutes and normal classes. 

2. In 1866 we recommended the following as a 
general course of study. 

First. A series of about fifty exercises, to extend 
through one or two years, as circumstances may de- 
termine, as follows : 

(1.) Five lectures by a professional and experi- 
enced teacher on the principles and art of teaching. 

(2.) Ten lectures on the Bible, its history, writers, 
inspiration, original languages, style, evidences, etc., 
with some simple statements concerning biblical 
criticism and interpretation. 

(3.) Ten specimen lessons for infant, advanced, and 
adult classes. 

(4.) Ten exegetical exercises from the Old and New 
Testament history, from the Psalms, Prophecies, and 
Epistles. 

(5.) Ten Catechetical lessons for concert recitation 
on Bible history, geography, chronology, ancient man- 



60 Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 

ners and customs, etc., covering in comprehensive 

lessons the field of biblical archseology. 

(6.) Five lectures on tbe organization, objects, his- 
tory, management, Church relations and development 
of tbe Sundaj-scbool work. 

Secondly, A prescribed course of reading, which 
shall ensure the careful perusal of the best books on 
teaching. 

3. The normal studies prescribed by the " Depart- 
ment of Instruction of the Methodist Episcopal Sun- 
day-School Union " — of which a fuller account will be 
given in the second part of this work — have frequently 
been incorporated in the programmes of District In- 
stitutes which held sessions for three consecutive days. 
Six or seven hours a day spent in lectures, specimen 
lessons, drills, reviews, criticisms, etc., conducted by 
gentlemen and ladies who had made special prepara- 
tion for the purpose, would enable a large company 
of teachers to pass over a wide range of subjects. If 
several practical tracts, previously announced, should 
be read before the institute, (as a part of the formal 
Department curriculum,) the work would be all the 
more profitable. "We have known districts where 
two such normal institutes were held annually with 
reference to the normal course and the diploma 
provided by the Board of Management in l$ew 
York. 

4. Every theological seminary should introduce 
this or a similar course of exercises, and in this way 
make the coming pastors of the Church familiar with 
an important department of labor. In this way, too, 
we should provide lecturers and instructors for the 
further preparation of Sunday-school teachers through 
public institutes and local normal classes. 



Sunday- School Teacheks' Institute. 61 

5. Several of the ladies' seminaries and colleges of 
America have already adopted a course of Sunday- 
school normal study, and from several of these insti- 
tutions cultivated young people — ladies and gentle- 
men — have come forth to engage in a service, the 
dignity of which they learned to appreciate by the 
readings, lectures, and practice-exercises of their 
"Sunday-school Normal Class." 

6. Local Unions may organize Sunday-school 
teachers' institutes in our principal cities, adopting a 
course of study, and by regular weekly meetings kept 
up through the year, encouraging teachers and older 
pupils to complete the course. 

7. Why might not the State conventions appoint 
a summer institute in the principal cities, to continue 
three or four weeks, taking candidates through the 
course in that time ? We are sure that the Christian 
families of these cities would open their homes to the 
country teachers for that length of time, as they are 
now so often opened to the members of general as- 
semblies, conferences, and conventions. And we are 
confident that no hospitality would pay as well to the 
Church. With competent lecturers and instructors, 
what moral power might these institutes soon wield, 
and right liberally could the managers, lecturers, etc., 
be paid. 

8. We have good hope that the " International 
College" movement, inaugurated at the National 
Convention in 1869, may (with a less cumbrous 
and pretentious title) develop into something more 
than a plan on paper, and aid in the realization of 
the suggestion made above. We need a wisely and 
thoroughly prepared course of study for all teachers, 
a course that may be employed in theological schools, 



62 Sunday- School Teachees' Institute. 

colleges, seminaries, local institutes, teachers' meet- 
ings, and regular Church normal classes. Will the 
Convention of 1872 give us such a course % 

9. Among the advantages to be reaped from such 
an arrangement we may mention the following : * 

(1.) Its universal use, actual or contemplated, will 
incite many to use it. Men go in crowds. What 
interest and power attach to the " week of prayer," 
from the simple fact that each offered prayer is a 
filament in that wondrous belt of Christian devotion 
that girdles the globe during the first eight days of 
the new year ! 

(2.) The plan will tend to unite schools, and bring 
the talent of each into the service of all. One reason 
of our present impotency is the want of harmony and 
co-action among the various denominations, 

(3.) It will encourage the right men to prepare 
suitable text-books and manuals for teachers. There 
has hitherto been singular deficiency in this depart- 
ment of religious and educational literature. Give 
us the institute as a fact, and there are men among 
us who will provide " helps" for the teachers. 

(4.) It may be said that we cannot find competent 
lecturers, etc. The movement will develop the men. 
Pastors will become theological professors, and the 
practical teachers of our public schools will be de- 
lighted to use their talents in aiding this Sunday- 
school reform. At any rate the most careless use of 
a prescribed course will be a vast improvement upon 
the present indifference and neglect which so weaken 
the influence of our Sunday-schools. 

* These words were written in 1866. 



Sunday- School Teacheks' Institute. 63 

XI. 

SUNDAY-SCHOOL INSTITUTE PROGRAMME. 



1. The best of programmes will not make a good 
institute ; and yet a good programme, carefully pre- 
pared beforehand and faithfully adhered to by the 
conductor, will contribute no little to the success of 
the meeting. 

2. As a matter of historic interest, and for the 
purpose of furnishing a variety of specimens, we have 
decided to reproduce in this volume several of the 
oldest and several of the best Sunday-school institute 
programmes which have been used in the United 
States. We are the more strongly disposed to do 
this in view of the frequent calls received at our office 
for "specimen programmes." 

3. A few historic notes in this connection will not 
be inappropriate. They will serve as links to con- 
nect the earlier programmes, and perhaps form a 
not uninteresting chapter in the development of the 
American Sunday-school work. 

Fikst Institute. 

At the Rock River Annual Conference of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church held in Chicago in Oc- 
tober, 1860, the Conference Committee reported as 
follows: " The importance of Teachers' Institutes to 
the educational interests of the country cannot have 
escaped your attention. May we not profitably in- 
troduce something similar among us? Such an insti- 

5 



61 Sunday-School Teachees' Institute. 

tote, conducted by our ablest Sunday -school educators, 
could not fail to elevate our standard, and improve 
our system of religious culture." This report was 
unanimously adopted by the Conference. 

At the Galena District Convention, held in Free- 
port, Illinois, April 16, 1861, the following question 
was proposed and discussed : u How may we carry 
out the suggestion of our Conference Sunday-School 
Committee relative to the Sunday-School Teachers' 
Institute ? " 

After some discussion it was resolved to organize 
an institute. The following Constitution was pre- 
sented and adopted : 

Constitution. 

Article I. This organization shall be called the Galena Dis- 
trict Sunday-School Teachers' Institute, having for its object 
the increase of Sunday-school interest and efficiency throughout 
Galena District. 

Article II. The officers (who shall be elected annually at 
the first District Convention of the Conference year) shall consist 
of a President, four Vice-Presi dents, and four Secretaries, who, 
with the Presiding Elder of the District, shall constitute a 
Board of Managers, whose duty it shall be to regulate the In- 
stitute meetings at each convention, and to attend to the Sub- 
District Institutes. 

Article III. For the accomplishment of its objects the Dis- 
trict shall be divided into four Sub-Districts, as follows : 

1. Galena, including Council Hill, Ebenezer, and Hanover. 

2. TVarren, including Apple River and Lena. 

3. Freeport, including Cedarville, Eleroy, and Forreston. 

4. Mount Carroll, including Brook ville, Elizabeth, and Sa- 
vanna. 

Article IV. A meeting of the Institute shall be held during 
each convention of the District. Each Sub-District shall hold 
an Institute at such time as the President, resident Vice-Presi- 
dent, and resident Secretary shall determine. 



Sunday-School Teachers' Institute. 65 

Article V. The President shall be elected by ballot, and 
shall preside at all Sub-District Institutes, and his expenses be 
provided for by each Institute. 

Article VI. The Officers and Teachers of the several Sab- 
bath-schools* in each Sub-District are members ex officio of 
their Institute, and their names shall be reported by eacli Pastor 
to the Secretary of the Institute. 

Article VII. The order of exercises shall be determined by 
a u Business Committee " appointed for this purpose at each 
Institute. 

Akticle VIII. This Constitution may be altered or amended 
at any regular meeting of the District Convention by a vote of 
two-thirds of the members present. 

The next day, Wednesday, April 17, 1861, the 
following programme was carried out in what we 
believe to have been the first regularly organized and 
permanent Sunday-School Teachers' Institute in the 
country : 

Galena District. 

Sunday- School Teachers' Institute, First Meeting in Freejjort, 
April 17, 1861. 

Wednesday, A. M. 
From 8.00 to 8.20, Devotional Services. 

8.20 to 8.45, Scripture Study, (historical,) conducted by 

Rev. D. Gassed ay. 
8.45 to 9.10, Drill on Order of Exercises in Sabbath- 
School, by Rev. C. M. Woodward. 
9.10 to 9.30, Remarks on Public Examinations in Sab- 
bath-Schools, by Rev. C. F. Wright. 
9.30 to 10.00, Scripture Study, (doctrinal,) conducted by 
Rev. H. Ely. — Adjourned. 

Wednesday, P. M. 
From 2.00 to 2.10, Devotional Service. 

2.10 to 2.30, Plan of conducting Teachers' Meeting, by 

Rev. J. M'Clane. 
2.30 to 3.00, Sacred Geography — Drill conducted by Gk 
J. Bliss. 



66 Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 

From 3.00 to 3.30, Lecture on " Our Institute and Sub-Insti- 
tutes," by Rev. J. H. Vincent.— Ad- 
journed. 

The district was subdivided. Sub-district insti- 
tues were held that year at Council Hill, Mount 
Carroll, Warren, and Freeport. The most gratifying 
results were realized. The following year three 
more districts organized institutes. A careful exam- 
ination of the records made at the time of these 
institutes satisfies us that for thoroughness and 
practicalness they deserve highest praise. At every 
session a Bible lesson was conducted, and the teacher 
subjected to the most searching criticism. The in- 
stitutes of these latter days w T hich the author has 
attended do not excel, and in some cases are not equal 
to, those of the earliest date in those features which 
tend to train teachers for their work.* 

Other Early Institutes. 

The Detroit District Methodist Episcopal Sunday- 
School Institute, Eev. M. Hickey, President, was held 
in Detroit, Mich., June 25, 26, 1861. Since that 
time this institute has held twenty semi-annual ses- 
sions, the last being at Wayne, Mich., April 10, 12, 
1871, the following programme of which we fur- 
nish. 

*The author may add that in November, 1861, he issued a circular 
explaining the institute, its objects, success, etc., and giving full direc- 
tions for its organization and management, with a list of over forty 
topics for essays and discussion. This circular was widely copied by 
the religious press. 



Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 67 

The Twenty-First Semi-Annual Session of the 

DETROI m 
ISTRIcl 1871 ' 

Methodist Episcopal Sunday-School Teachers' Institute, at 
Wayne, April 10, 11, 12, 1871. Silas Farmer, President. 

Circular Letter from the Presiding Elder. 

Detroit, March 3, 1871. 
To the Ministers and Sunday- School Workers within the bounds 
of the Detroit District of the Methodist Episcopal Church. 

Dear Brethren and Friends : Let me call special atten- 
tion to our Sunday-School Institute to be held at Wayne. I 
hope there will be a general attendance. Our Sunday-school 
work needs to be looked after more carefully and earnestly in 
some places, and at no place that I know of are we more likely 
to become alive to the true interests of the Sunday-school than 
at our institute, where the earnest laborers come together for a 
review of the past, and to lay plans for the future. Let us 
have a large gathering; Truly your fellow-laborer, 

F. A. Blades. 

Special Notices. 

1. Our friends in Wayne invite a large attendance, and free 
entertainment will be gladly provided for all Sabbath-school 
workers on the district that attend. 

2. Each school on the district is earnestly requested to send 
to the institute a committee of three, with the understanding 
that they report on returning concerning the work and sugges- 
tions of the institute. 

• 3. Every person whose name appears on the programme in 
connection with any duty consented to serve, and was duly 
notified from six to ten weeks previous to the time fixed on for 
the session. 

4. Ministers and Superintendents receiving this programme 
are particularly requested to call special attention to the insti- 
tute in their Churches and Schools on the two Sabbaths next 
preceding the session. 

5. Please give the institute a place in your prayers. Surely we 



68 Sunday- School Teachees' Institute. 

need wisdom in our work, and we think the Lord will give it 
us through this institute if we pray about and attend it. 

6. Please try and arrange your business so as to le present at 
the first session on Monday evening, and, if possible, stay through 
the entire session of the institute, and you will surely be greatly 
the gainer. 

Peogeamme. 

Monday Evening. 7.30 o'clock — Opening Exercises. 

1. Why ought every one to be interested in the Sunday-school 
work, and how may its usefulness be increased by those who 
are not directly laboring in it ? — Rev. W. X. Ninde, Detroit. 

2. The Sabbath-school a national defense. — Prof. W. C. Clemo, 
Farmington. 

Tuesday, A. M. 8.30 o'clock — Prayer Meeting. 

3. Sunday-school Concerts ; what may and what should not 
be done ; names and kinds of appropriate exercises. — Rev. L. 
Lee, Northville. 

4. Bible Classes: Their management, subjects of study, and 
helps in the work. — W. J. M'Cune, Detroit. 

5. Singing in our Sunday-schools ; how can it be made more 
artistic, appropriate, devotional, and general, and what is its 
relative value as an auxiliary in our work. — C. T. Barnard, 
Wayne. 

Asking and answering. 

Tuesday, P. M. 2 o'clock— Opening Exercises. 

6. Qualifications and deportment of Sabbath-school Teachers. 
—Rev. W. H. Benton, Plymouth. 

7. Change places. — J. E. Jacklin, Detroit. 

8. The Teachers' Meeting. — Silas Farmer, Detroit. 

Tuesday Evening, 7.30 o'clock — Opening Exercises. 

9. In what particular kinds of religious work may children 
engage, and how shall we enlist them in it. — H. Hitchcock, 
Detroit. 

10. Institute Class Meeting. Personal experience in the 
Sunday-school work, especially as teachers. Were you con- 
verted before or while teaching? How long have you been 



Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 69 

engaged in teaching, and in what places? What difficulties 
and hinderances do you meet, and what compensations and 
rewards have you had ? 
Asking and answering. 

Wednesday, A. M. 8.30 o'clock — Praise Meeting. 

11. What accessories to the Sunday-school can be employed 
daring the week to interest, entertain, and profit the entire 
community, especially its young people? Rev. C. C. Yemans, 
Detroit. 

12. What can we do to promote the permanent growth in 
chaiacter and intellect of those now in our schools? Rev. J. 
Frazer, Trenton. 

13. Self-sacrifice on the part of teachers an antidote to per- 
sonal ambition, and an essential element of success in the Sun- 
day-school work. Rev. J. G. Morgan, Belleville. 

Asking and answering. 

Wednesday, P. M. 2 o'clock — Opening Exercises. 
Business. 
3 o'clock — Children's Meeting. 

After the presentation of each topic, from 10 to 20 minutes 
will be allowed for verbal questioning of the essayist or any 
member of the institute. 

Union Institutes. 

On November IT, 1864, an essay was read by the 
author of this volume before the Cook County 
Sunday-School Teachers' Convention in Chicago ; 
subject : "A permanent Sunday-School Teachers' In- 
stitute for the North-west." Having discussed with 
some carefulness and thoroughness the demands of 
the Sunday-school work upon the teacher the follow- 
ing suggestion was made : " What we want is to lift 
up before all the schools and the teachers a regular 
system of teacher-training ; not merely to provide a 
printed outline of studies, but to organize a class for 



TO Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 

the training of teachers to which certain persons 
shall be admitted, and which shall serve as a public 
model of what ought to be done in every school, and 
of just how it ought to be done. One such model 
class, or institute, or normal school in a city like 
Chicago would do more in one year toward attract- 
ing attention to the important subject of training, 
and of prescribing the practicable plan for securing 
training every-where, than twenty conventions a 
year, with all the talking and discussing incident to 
such convocations. Such a class, permanently or- 
ganized, could bring to its aid the best talent of our 
pulpits, colleges, and theological schools. Illustra- 
tions of teaching among all classes, lectures upon the 
various departments of Bible investigation, critical 
study of the sacred text itself, weekly preparation of 
assigned tasks, would soon raise up a class of com- 
petent Sunday-school teachers in our midst, every 
one of whom would inspire the teachers of our schools 
with holy ambition to secure greater efficiency in 
teaching. An institute of this kind in Chicago, 
under the auspices of your Union, in rooms ap- 
propriately furnished for the use of Sunday-school 
teachers, might wield an amount of influence through- 
out the schools of the North-west which at a casual 
glance you may not estimate. 

" As it is, our labors are too much divided. Your 
Union meets in a dozen different places during the 
year. You must depend on fifty different men to 
talk, teach, and suggest. No fixed place is prescribed 
for more than one or two meetings at a time. No 
continuous course of investigation is followed. It is 
a noble Convention in itself, and does good, but we 
need concentration, We must put more strength 



Sunday- School Teacheks' Institute. 71 

into our Union efforts, and let the preparation for 
them be of the highest class. There is no one room 
where teachers may meet. We should be able to 
find in some central place maps, charts, cards, 
Sunday -school apparatus of various kinds, the latest 
and best works on Sunday-school teaching, etc. To 
such a center teachers from the country may come 
and receive suggestions, all Sunday-school informa- 
tion and appliances may here be concentrated, and 
every winter a regular course of evening lectures 
and lessons be given to our teachers or to a select 
number of our senior scholars from the different 
schools whom we wish to prepare for the teacher's 
office. 

" In this hurried essay it is difficult to convey a 
correct idea of what I propose without leaving upon 
your minds the impression that the method is heavy, 
complicated, and impracticable. That it requires 
effort and perseverance I do not deny. The lack of 
these is what makes our schools so inefficient. We 
who are awake to the value of the Sunday-school as 
part of the Church, and who are willing to work, 
must be ready for difficult labor. An organization 
of this kind might at first enlist comparatively few, 
but it would present a model to the Sunday-school 
laborers throughout the country, and thus increase 
the interest of our teachers in the work of prepara- 
tion. It would require time and money; but the 
ends contemplated would compensate us a hundred 
fold for all expenditures. 

" The plan proposed is not new. Our English 
brethren illustrate the scheme in the London Sunday- 
School Union. In the Memorial Building — erected, 
I think, in 1856 at No. 56 Old Bailey — you may see 



72 Sunday- School Teachers 1 Institute. 

the plan in successful operation. In connection with 
ample publishing and sales-rooms they have a large 
and elegantly furnished committee-room, an extensive 
teachers' library, two or three Bible-class rooms, and 
a hall, with gallery large enough to accommodate five 
hundred persons. Here Sunday-school teachers of 
every denomination meet for consultation, for read- 
ing, for study, and worship. 

u A regular Sunday-School Union Xormal College 
is organized ; and, as the first important step toward 
its full establishment, a training class meets in the 
Lecture Hall, No. 56 Old Bailey, on every Wednes- 
day evening, commencing at half past seven o'clock 
precisely and closing at nine o'clock. 

' ; The Sunday-school work in England is not gener- 
ally so prosperous as with us ; but the London workers 
have adopted the true method for acquiring power, 
and of achieving great things from God. All the 
schools under the care of the London Union must 
certainly prosper. Their Memorial Building, with 
its library for teachers and its lecture hall — the 
Union, with its training class, regular lectures, and 
normal college, are the best things England has done 
in the Sunday-School Department. What they have 
we ought to have, and we might enjoy at once sub- 
stantially all that they possess, and our schools grow 
rapidly under the new regime. 

" Sunday-school teachers, let us remember that if 
we fail in our work it will be either because we do 
not trust enough in God, or because we do not aim 
high enough in seeking the qualifications requisite 
to the faithful performance of the work appointed. 
Let us aim high and trust in God. A field broader 
than ever opens before us. We are planting seeds and 



Sunday- School Teacheks' Institute. 73 

saplings that shall flourish in noble forests ages 
hence. Let us put in the ground trees that shall rise 
high, cast broad shadows, and bear perennial fruit, 
and a thousand years from now, w T hen we sleep in 
Graceland or Greenwood, or on some battle-field or 
in mid-ocean, they who live shall say, 'Blessed are 
they who planted trees of such noble height, broad 
branches, and bearing such goodly fruit.' " * 

On November 22 in the same year, and independ- 
ently, we have no doubt, of the previous movements, 
the following programme was issued, and on Decem- 
ber 6, 1864, Messrs. Pardee and Wells held their first 
regular Sunday-School Institute, to which Mr. 
Pardee makes reference in his admirable " Index :" 

Steuben County 

Sabbath- School Teachers' Institute. Ralph Wells, Esq., and B. G. 
Pardee, A.M., of New York City, Instructors. 

This Institute or Training Class is to be held at the Methodist 
Church in Corning, beginning on Tuesday evening, December 
6, 1864, is to continue through Wednesday and Thursday, 
and is intended to aid in the supply of a felt need in all our 
Sabbath-schools for increased efficiency in Sabbath-school in- 
struction. It is believed to be a step in advance. The names 
of the gentlemen who have consented to give us the benefit of 
their large experience, extensive observation, and careful study, 
constitute a full guarantee to those who know them that no 
Sabbath-school teacher in the county can afford to miss this op- 
portunity for gaining practical knowledge with reference to the 
best method of Sabbath-school teaching. The older members 
of our Bible classes, as well as those already teachers, should 
attend. We hope that every Sunday-school will send a dele- 
gation, and we will undertake to provide entertainment for all. 

*The above suggestions were adopted by the Convention, a com- 
mittee appointed, and a regular course of meetings announced. (Seo 
pp. 75-77.) 



Ttt Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 

The Institute is not for speech making, or reports, or Bible- 
class teaching, but for the purpose of imparting and receiving 
instruction and suggestions in the art of teaching in the Sunday- 
school. 

Those "who receive this circular are earnestly requested to in- 
terest themselves in securing a good attendance from their 
locality, and to send to either of the undersigned the names of 
those who will attend, that we may make proper arrangements 
for their entertainment. 

We shall be happy to greet Sunday-school laborers from 
abroad who may be interested to see the working of this ex- 
periment. 

It is earnestly desired that all who can will be present at the 
opening and remain to the close of the exercises. 

Okder of Exeecises. 
Tuesday Evening, December 6, 7 o'clock. 
Three addresses, introductory. It is quite important that all 
hear these first addresses. 

Wednesday, A. M., 9 o'clock. 

1. Devotional exercises for half an hour. 

2. Sunday-School Teachers' Meeting, conducted by Mr. Wells. 

3. Criticisms, and questions asked by the class. 

Wednesday, P. M., 2 o'clock. 

1. Teachers' meeting, conducted by Mr. Pardee. 

2. Criticisms and questions as before. 

3. Model lesson by Mr. Wells. 

Wednesday Evene\ t g, 7 o'clock. 
Addresses, etc. 

Thursday, A. M., 9 o'clock. 

1. Half hour spent in devotional exercises. 

2. Best methods of conducting Sabbath-schools, by Mr. 
Wells and Mr. Pardee. 

3. Methods of Bible-class teaching, by Mr. Wells, followed 
by criticisms, etc. 



Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 75 

Thursday, P. M., 2 o'clock. 

1. Methods of infant-class instruction by Mr. Pardee, fol- 
lowed by criticisms, etc. 

2. Model lesson by Mr. Wells. 

3. At 4 o'clock a children's meeting. 

Thursday Evening, 7 o'clock. 
A general Sunday-School Meeting, closing the institute. 

Will not every friend of the Sabbath-school make an earnest 
effort to secure the complete success of this undertaking ? 

G-. A. Starkweather, Pastor of the Baptist Church. 

R. Hogoboom, Pastor of the M. E. Church. 

W. A. JSTiles, Pastor of the Presbyterian Church. 

The following is the course o/ study which w r as 
adopted by the Chicago brethren after the sugges- 
tions made at their Convention, reported on pages 
69-73. 

North-western Sunday-School Teachers' Institute. 
Winter Course. 

1. Jan. 9, 1865. Lecture on "Concert Exercises in the Sab- 
bath-school," by Rev. J. H. Vincent. 

[This lecture will be illustrated by the " Palestine Class " 
method, with a recitation on " The Bible Lands.] 
Business meeting. 

2. Jan. 16. " The Teacher in the Preparation of his Lesson." 
An address, with illustrations, by Rev. E. A. Pierce. To be 
followed by general conversation on the subject. 

3. Jan. 23. Specimen lesson : "The Temptation of Christ," 
Matt, iv, 1-11, by Rev. E. G. Taylor. 

[Twenty minutes will be devoted to a criticism of the method 
adopted by the conductor of the lesson ; to be followed by a 
conversation on the subject of " Order in Sabbath-Schools." 

4. Jan. 29. Lecture on " The History of the Bible." 

[An analysis of the lecture will be given on the blackboard, 
and the class exercised in a concert drill upon it.] Thirty 
minutes spent in a social interview. 



76 Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 

5. Feb. 6. Preparation Class : Subject, " The four thousand 
fed," Matt, xv, 29-39. 

[In this exercise all members are expected to bring some facts 
or suggestions illustrative and explanatory of the lesson. 

On this evening the " Question Drawer " will be opened, at 
which time any practical difficulties in the organization, gov- 
ernment, and instruction of Sunday-schcols may be proposed 
and discussed. 

6. Feb. 13. Lecture on the " Teacher's Qualifications," by J. 
L. Pickard, Esq., Superintendent of Public Schools. Conversa- 
tion on the topic of the lecture for twenty minutes. 

Business meeting. 

7. Feb. 20. AYalks about Jerusalem. [In this exercise the 
blackboard, maps, photographs, stereoscopic views, etc., will 
be employed. 

8. Feb. 27. The Infant Class : A specimen exercise, followed 
by conversation. 

Social interview for thirty minutes. 

9. March 6. Lecture on " What and How to Teach in Sun- 
day-School," by J. S. Dennis, Esq. 

Conversation on topic of lecture for twenty minutes. Busi- 
ness meeting. 

10. March 13. Model Adult Bible Class : Subject, " Char- 
acter of Peter." Criticism for twenty minutes. Conversation 
on " Sunday-School Rooms and Furniture." 

11. March 20. Lecture on u The Teacher's Office," by Rev. 
D. P. Kidder, D. D. 

[After the lecture the class will spend thirty minutes in col- 
lecting scriptural texts, allusions, illustrations, etc., descriptive 
of the true teacher.] 

12. March 27. Specimen Lesson : Subject, " The Conversion 
of Saul." Business meeting. 

13. April 3. Preparation Exercise on " The Domestic Habits 
of the Bible Times, as illustrated by the present habits of the 
East." 

The first meeting of the institute will be held in the prayer 
room of the Young Men's Christian Association, unless the at- 
tendance shall be large enough to justify the opening of the 
lecture-room of the First Methodist Episcopal Church in the 
same building. E. W. Hawley, Secretary. 



Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 77 

Concerning this programme the Chicago " Sunday- 
School Quarterly " for July, 1865, says : 

The North-western Sunday- School Teachers' Institute, 
the organization of which was announced in the January 
number of the Quarterly, has proved a gratifying success. 
Over seventy regular students are reported. [Then follows a 
report of the winter course.] 

The summer course commenced May 22, by a geographical 
recitation on " The Wanderings of Israel." 

The second session was held June 5. A Scripture lesson 
was given by Rev. J. H. Vincent : Subject, " The Transfigura- 
tion of Christ." The following is the remainder of the course 
for the year : 

July 10. Lecture and concert recitation on " The Historic 
Books of the Old Testament." 

Aug. 7. Lecture and concert recitation on " The Prophetic 
Books." 

Sept. 4. At 3 o'clock P. M., Special Juvenile Class. 

Sept. 4. At 8 o'clock P. M., Lecture on " The History of the 
Sunday-School Movement." 

Sept. 5. At 9 o'clock A. M., Bible study, " Saul at Endor." 

Sept. 5. At 3 o'clock P. M., Geographical recitation, " The 
Captivity of Israel." 

Sept. 5. At 8 o'clock P.M., "The Model Sunday-School 
Illustrated." 

Oct. 2. Lecture and concert recitation on " The Historic 
Books of the New Testament." 

Nov. G. Bible study, " Job, first chapter." 

Dec. 4. First anniversary. Lecture on " Teaching." 

Autumnal Reunion 
Of the Chicago Sunday-School Union, the CooTc County Sunday- 
School Convention, and the North-western Sunday-School Teach- 
ers 1 Institute, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, 
November 7-10, 1865, at the First Methodist Episcopal Church, 
Chicago, III. 

Order op Exercises. 
1. General meeting, Tuesday evening, November 7, audience 
room. E. S. Skinner, Esq., President of Chicago Sunday-School 



78 Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 

Union, in the Chair. Addresses by Rev. "W. B. Wright, Rev. 
E. J. Goodspeed, Rev. O. H. Tiffany, D. D., and Rev. Frederick 
T. Brown, D. D. Singing by the Sunday-School Quartette Club 
and the congregation. Exercises will commence precisely at 
7.30 P.M. 

2. Cook County Sunday-School Convention, Wednesday, 
A. M., November 8, lecture room. 

Programme. 

9.30 to 10, Devotional. 

10 to 10.45, Temporary organization ; Permanent organiza- 
tion. 

10.45 to 11.55, Discussion : " How shall we reach the children 
of Cook County with the Gospel and its means of culture ? " 

11.55, Adjourn to noon meeting, Young Men's Christian As- 
sociation Rooms. 

Wednesday, P. M., Lecture Room. 

2.30 to 2.45, Opening service. 

2.45 to 3.30, Discussion: "How shall we more deeply in- 
terest the Church in the Sunday-school, and how increase our 
adult classes ? " Essay by Rev. J. M. K. Looker. 

3.30 to 4, Discussion : "Is it practicable to introduce a uni- 
form system of lessons into all our Sunday-schools?" Opened 
by G. W. Perkins, Esq. 

4 to 4.15, Singing. 

4.15 to 5, Discussion : " What are the principal difficulties 
experienced in the prosecution of the Sunday-school work, and 
how may they be obviated ? " 

Wednesday Evening. 

Evening of prayer for the Sunday-school. [Special request 
by the Committee of the Cook County Sunday-School Conven- 
tion.] As this is the evening usually spent by the Churches in 
the regular Church prayer-meeting, we have decided to hold 
no general meeting ; and we respectfully request all pastors of 
the city and county to call the attention of their Churches to 
the Sunday-school cause. Let the following topic be presented 
at every meeting throughout the city and county for practical 
and very brief suggestions : " How shall we secure the spiritual 
results which, as Sunday-school workers, we have a right to 



Sunday-School Teachers' Institute. 79 

expect ? " Will the pastor or other person take brief notes of 
the suggestions offered, and he prepared to present them at the 
meeting of the Convention on Thursday morning? We re- 
quest prayers in behalf of all pastors and Sunday-school officers ; 
in behalf of adult, juvenile, and infant classes ; of converted 
scholars, and especially of the unconverted ; in behalf of mis- 
sion-schools, and of the thousands of children in our city and 
county who are not reached as yet by Sunday-school influence. 

Thursday, A. M., November 9, Lecture Eoom. 

10 to 10.45, Opening exercises and transaction of business. 

10.55 to 11.55, Reports from the various prayer-meetings of 
last evening with especial reference to the topic, " How shall 
we secure the spiritual results which, as Sunday-school workers, 
we have a right to expect ? " 

11.55, Adjourn for noon prayer-meeting. 

3. North-western Sunday- School Teachers Institute, 
Thursday, P. M., lecture room. 

2.20 to 3, Opening exercises. 

3 to 3.45, Bible study : " Elijah and the Prophets of Baal/' 
Conducted by Mr. William Lawrence. 

3.45 to 4.15, Conversation on methods of Bible teaching. 
4.15 to 5, Lecture on the inspiration of Scripture by Rev. C. 
H. Fowler. 

Thursday Evening, Audience Room. 

7.30 to 8.30, The model Sunday-school described and illus- 
trated. [A school of twenty classes, and over one hundred 
scholars, will assemble in the Church and hold a regular ses- 
sion.] 

Friday, P. M., Lecture Room. 

2.30 to 2.45, Opening exercises. 

2.45 to 3.30, An object lesson by Miss M. E. Davis. 

3.30 to 4, Conversation on object teaching. 

4 to 4.30, Geographical recitation. Subject : " Hebron." 

4. Annual Festival and Sociable of the Chicago Sunday- 
School Union, Fridav evening. November 10, at Bryan Hall. 

6 



80 Sunday- School Teacheks' Institute. 

Refreshments, music, and addresses. Pliilip Phillips, of Cincin- 
nati, the sweet singer of the Sunday-School Israel and author 
of " Musical Leaves/' will sing several pieces. Tickets of ad- 
mission, including a supper check, $1. 

Quincy Sunday-School Teachers' Institute, Saturday 
afternoon, November 25, 1865. The model Sunday-school de- 
scribed and illustrated. 

Programme. 

2.30 to 2.45, Singing by the congregation. 

2.45 to 3.45, A Sunday-school session. 

Name of school : "The Institute Sunday-School." 

Officers : J. H. Vincent, Superintendent ; Thomas Pope, As- 
sistant ; A. C. Skinner, Secretary ; G. W. Foss, Treasurer ; S. P. 
Church, Librarian ; Dr. Talcott, Chorister. 

The audience is requested — 1. To join with the school in 
singing. 2. To maintain perfect, order during the thirty minutes 
spent by the school in Scripture study. 

The Institute Sunday-School, Saturday afternoon, November 25. 

Order of Exercises. 

I. Opening. 

1. Singing. 

2. The Beatitudes read by the assistant superintendent and 
the school. (Matt, v, 1-10.) 

3. Prayer, (the entire school standing.) Close by repeating 
in conceit the Lord's Prayer. 

4. Singing. 

5. Roll of teachers. 

II. Bible Study. 

1. Announcement of the lesson. 

2. Preparatory prayer. 

3. Study for thirty minutes. 

4. Recitation of the Golden Text. 

5. General Review. 

III. Closing 
1. Singing. 2. Closing service. 

Let the whole school rise at the signal and repeat the follow^ 
ing : "Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of ray 



Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 81 

heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength and Re- 
deemer." 

» 

Then the superintendent shall say : '"The Lord watch be- 
tween me and thee when we are absent one from the other." 

Bell signals : One stroke, " silence," or " be seated." Two 
strokes, whole school rise, Three strokes, teachers only rise. 

The Lesson, Matt, v, 1-10. 

Golden Text, verses 6, 8. 

3.45 to 4, Geographical recitation : " The Wanderings of 
Israel." 

4 to 4.15, Question-Drawer Opened. 

4.15 to 5, Business. 

M. E. S. S. Teachers' Institute of Washington and George- 
town, D. C. Foundry M. E. Church, Tuesday, May 15, 1867. 
Scriptural Study : The Childhood and Youth of Jesus. 
Institute Text-Book : Helpful Hints for the Sunday- 
School Teacher. 

I. Tuesday Morning, The Student-Teacher. 

I. Introductory. 
Opening services, 9 to 9.15. 

II. The Teacher's Acquisition of Knowledge. 

1. Remarks, 9.15 to 10.15. 

(1.) Why does a Sunday-school teacher need a general pre- 
paratory training in order to teach specific lessons successfully ? 

(2.) What does this general preparatory training comprise ? 

(3.) Why docs an educated Sunday -school teacher need 
special preparation for each lesson ? 

(4.) What are some of the best methods for studying the word 
of God? 

2. Reading exercises, 10.15 to 10.45. "Helpful Hints," 
C. V., page 16. 

3. Preparation exercises, 10.45 to 11.10. 

(1.) Examine the accounts we have of Christ's birth and 
youth ; when, where, and by whom written ? 

(2.) Analyze and arrange these accounts in several distinct 
topics. 

(3.) Study as in preparation for teaching, Luke ii, 8-14, 
"The wonderful watch-night." 



82 Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 

III. The Teacher communicating Knowledge. 

1. Essay, 11.10 to 11.25. How shall we hold the attention 
of our scholars ? 

2. Remarks, 11.25 to 11.35. 

3. Specimen lesson, 11.35 to 12. "From star to star, or wise 
men in search of Jesus," Matt, ii, 1-11. 

4. Reading exercise, 12 to 12.15. " Helpful Hints," C. VII, 
page 28. 

II. Tuesday Afternoon, Sacred Geography and Antiquities. 
I. Introductory. 
Opening services, 2.30 to 2.45. 

n. Uses, Methods, and Illustrations. 

1. Remarks, 2.45 to 3.15 : (1.) Of what advantage to the 
Bible student is the study of sacred geography ? (2.) Is it 
proper to make it a subject of Sunday-school study ? (3.) How 
shall we teach this and kindred topics so as not to interfere 
with the spiritual objects of the Sunday-schools ? 

2. Studies in sacred geography and antiquities, 3.15 to 4.30 : 
(1.) What civil and religious laws existing in the times of 

Christ are indicated in the lessons for the day ? (2.) What an- 
cient manners and customs ? (3.) What places are mentioned ? 
(4.) Trace the journeys of Jesus during his youth. (5.) Exer- 
cise on "The Mountains of Jesus." (6.) The Palestine class 
described and illustrated. 

The Question-Drawer Opened. 4.30 to 5. 

III. Tuesday Evening, Miscellaneous. 

L Sunday-School Teachers' 1 Prayer Circle. 7.30 to 8. 

H. Infant Class. 8 to 8.30. 

HI. Question Drawer. 8.30 to 9. 

New York Sunday-School Institute, 
To he held at the Reformed Dutch Church {corner of oth Avenue 
and 2§th street, New York) on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wed- 
nesday, Thursday, and Friday evenings, March 17-22, 1867. 
Conductor : Rev. J. H. Vincent. 

Lecturers and Teachers : Rev. T. E. Vermilye, D. D.,LL.D. ; 
Rev. S. H. Tyng, D. D. ; Rev. Howard Crosby, D. D. ; Ralph 



Sunday-School Teachers' Institute. 83 

Wells, Esq. ; R. G. Pardee, Esq. ; Andrew A. Smith, Esq. ; Rev. 
T. W. Chambers, D. D. ; K A. Calkins, Esq.; John S. Hart, 
LL. D. ; Rev. C. S. Robinson, D. D. ; Rev. S. H. Tyng, Jr. ; Rev. 
H. D. Ganse; Rev. R. J. W. Buckland ; Rev. William M. 
Paxton ; Rev. Dr. Anderson ; Rev. W. T. Sabine. 

Musical Director : Professor Philip Phillips. 

Committee of Arrangements : S. S. Constant, Peter Balen, 
William Phelps, Baptist ; Caleb B. Knevals, Francis R. Batch- 
elder, Congregational ; Theophilns A. Brcuwer, Joseph B. 
Lockwood, Richard Amerman, Reformed Dutch; William B. 
Nbrtkrup, Riley A. Brick, William Harmon Brown, Episcopal; 
William W. Cornell, B. C. Wandell, William K. Peyton, Meth- 
odist; J. W. Lester, John E. Parsons, William F. Lee, Pres- 
byterian. 

Theophilus A. Brouwer, Chairman. 

Joseph B. Lockwood, Secretary. 

To the Friends of the Sunday-School Cause. 

By the accompanying programme you will see that arrange- 
ments have been made for holding an institute for the benefit 
of all who are interested in the extension and improvement of 
our Sunday-school work. We cordially invite you to attend 
these meetings. If practicable, be regularly and punctually 
present. Seek the Divine blessing upon all the services, re- 
membering that " Except the Lord build the house, they labor 
in vain that build it." You will also find it profitable to bring 
with you a Bible, a blank-book and pencil for taking notes. 

Afternoon sessions will be held for lectures, practice-lessons, 
the " question-drawer," etc., if a sufficient number of teachers 
will pledge themselves to attend. 

Programme. 
Sunday Evening, March 17, at half past 7 o'clock. 
Preliminary sermon by Rev. T. E. Vermilye, D.D., LL.D. 

First Session, Monday Evening. 
7.00. Devotional exercises, conducted by Rev. J. H. Vincent. 
Subject: " Our Homes." 



84 Sunday- School -Teachers' Institute. 

7.30. Introductory address : "The Object of Sunday-School 
Teaching," by Rev. S. H. Tyng, D. D . 

8.00. Exercise in sacred topography, by Rev. J. H. Vincent. 
8.15. Serial questions: 

1. "What are the objects of the Mission Sunday-school?" 

2. " What are the objects of the Church Sunday-school ? " 
[Brief written answers to the above questions are requested 

from the audience. They will then be referred to a committee, 
and reported at the second session.] 

8.30. " The Relation of the Pastor and Church to the Sunday- 
School," by the Rev. Howard Crosby, D. D. 

Second Session, Tuesday Evening. 

7.00. Devotional exercises, conducted by Rev. William M. 
Paxton. Subject: " Our Unconverted Scholars." 

7.20. Report of Committee on " The Objects of the Sunday- 
School." 

7.30. The Model Superintendent Described, by R. G. Pardee, 
Esq. 

7.55. The Duties of Sunday- School Teachers to the Super- 
intendent, by Andrew A. Smith, Esq. 

8.20. Defects in Sunday-School Teaching, by Rev. H. D. 
Ganse. 

8.50. Order of Exercises in Sunday-School. 

[Reports will be made from four schools.] 

Third Session, Wednesday Evening. 

7.00. Devotional exercises, conducted by Rev. Dr. Anderson. 
Subject : " Sunday-School Teachers." 

7.30. Bible Illustrations, by Rev. S. H. Tyng, Jr. 

8.00. Infant class lesson, conducted by Ralph Wells, Esq. 

8.50. Blackboard, Picture, and Object Teaching, by R. G. 
Pardee, Esq. 

Fourth Session, Thursday Evening. 

7.00. Devotional exercises, conducted by Rev. W. T. Sabine. 
Subject : " Mission Sunday-Schools." 

7.20. Sacred geography. 

7.45. Bible class lesson, conducted by Rev. C. S. Robin- 
son, D. D. 

8.30. Serial questions : 



Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 85 

1. "Why should our Sunday-school Teachers receive some 
preparatory training for their work ? " 

2. " "What should this training comprise ? " 

8.45. Address to Sunday-school Teachers, by John S. 
Hart, LL. D. 

Fifth Session, Friday Evening. 

7.00. Devotional Exercises, conducted by Rev. T. W. Cham- 
bers, D. D. Subject : " Educational Institutions." 

7.20. Report of Committee on " The Training of Sunday- 
school Teachers." 

7.35. Address on " Teacher-Training," by Rev. J. H. Vincent. 

8.05. Address on " The Secular School and the Sunday- 
School," by K A. Calkins, Esq. 

8.35. Address on " Teachers' Meetings," by R. G. Pardee, Esq. 

9.00. Closing address by Rev. R. J. W. Bucklancl. 

East Genesee Conference 
Sunday-School Training Institute, Geneva, New York, (1867.) 

I. The Pulpit and Sunday-School, Friday P.M., July 19. 

2.30. Opening service. 
2.45. Introductory address. 
3.15. The Pulpit : 

1. What is its distinctive mission? by Rev. F. G. Hib- 
bard, D. D. 

2. How does its work differ from that of the Sunday- 
School ? by Rev. J. D. Steele, A. M., of Elmira. 

3. The Pulpit in the Sunday-School. 

4. How may the Pulpit and the School render the most 
efficient service to each other ? by Rev. D. \V. C. Hunt- 
ington, of Rochester. 

[The above topics will be open to discussion in brief papers, 
addresses, free conversation, etc. Let all be prepared to make 
some contribution to this exercise.] 

II. The Family and the Sunday-School, Friday Evening. 

7.45. Opening service. 
8.00. The Family : 

1. Its religious mission, by Rev. J. Alabaster, A. M. 

2. Defects of the modern family. 



86 Sunday- School Teachees' Institute. 

3. How may the Sunday-school aid the family ? 

4. How may the family aid the Sunday-school ? 

5. The Family Altar, by Rev. W. H. Goodwin, D. D. 

HI. The Mission Sunday-School, Saturday, A. M. 

8.30. Opening service. 

8.40. The Mission Sunday-School denned, by Rev. J. H. 
Vincent. 

8.55. The Duty of the Methodist Episcopal Minister to or- 
ganize Mission Schools, by Rev. C. Z. Case, A. M. 

9.15. The irreligious, Popish and neglected populations of 
our land. What can we do for them ? 

IV. The Church Sunday-School, Saturday, A. M. 

10.05. Principles of Sunday-School Organization. 

10.45. The Duties of Church Members to the Sunday-School, 
by James S. Ostrander, Esq., Albany. 

11.10. The Missionary Cause in Sunday-School, by Rev. D. D. 
Buck, D. D. 

11.40. The Church Class and the Sunday-School. 

V. Sunday-School Officers and Teachers, Saturday, P. M. 
9.30. Opening service. 
2.40. Topic presented by Rev. S. J. Rogers, A. M., of Geneva. 

1. The model Sunday-school Superintendent. 

3.00. Topic presented by Rev. A. A. Wood, D. D., of Geneva. 

2. The model Sunday-school Teacher. 
3.20. Topics presented by Rev. J. H. Vincent. 

3. The teacher prepared for his work. 

4. The Sunday-school Home Normal Class. 
4.00. Open discussion of the above topics. 
4.30. Blackboard exercises. 

VI. A Pilgrimage to Palestine, Saturday Evening. 
7.45. Opening service. 
8.00. Songs and recitations by a class. 
8.20. Blackboard outline of a tour through Palestine. 

VII. Special Services, Sabbath. 
[To be arranged by the committee and announced on Satur- 
day.] 



Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 87 

VIII. Bible Study and Teaching, Monday, A. M. 
9.00. Half hour of prayer and song. 
9.30. Preparation class, " The Transfiguration." 
10.00. Teaching defined. 
10.30. Methods of teaching. 
11.00. Blackboard exercises. 

IX. Teaching, Monday, P. M. 

2.30. Opening services. 

2.45. Exercises in sacred geography. 

3.15. Methods of teaching. 

4.00. Question drawer. 

X. Closing Exercises. 
7.45. Opening service. 
8.00. Order of exercises in Sunday-school. 
8.45. Farewell meeting. 



Institute at Rochester, New York, September 11-13, 1867. 
Programme. 
I. Introductory, Wednesday Evening, 7.45 o'clock. 
Opening lecture by Rev. K. P. Jervis. Subject : "The Rela- 
tion between Spiritual Character and Intellectual Growth." 

II. Official Department, Thursday Morning, 9 o'clock. 
Addresses, written notes and questions on the following 
subjects : 

1. The officers of the Sunday-school. 

2. Manner of election. 

3. Duties and trials of the librarian, treasurer, secretary, 
chorister, and the several committees, by Dr. A. Mandeville 
and Mr. Charles Airing. 

4. Relation and duties of the Pastor to the Sunday-school. 

Thursday Afternoou, 2.30 o'clock. 

5. The superintendent, " Moses, the Hebrew Lawgiver and 
Leader, as a Model," by Rev. J. E. Larimer. 

6. The superintendent's difficulties. 



88 Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 

7. The Sunday-school teacher's duties to the officers of the 
school. 

8. Question-drawer. 

9. General review. 

III. Educational Department, Senior. Grade, Thursday 
Evening, 7.45 o'clock. 

1. Why should there be such a grade ? 

2. Its relation to the remainder of the school. 

3. Its teachers and lessons, by Mr. James Tick. 

4. How attract and retain young people and adults in our 
Sunday-school 1 by Rev. D. W. C. Huntington. 

5. The normal section of the senior grade. 

Juvenile Grade, Friday Morning, 9 o'clock. 

1. System of lessons. 

2. Preparation to teach. 

3. Home-help in study, by Miss Carrie E. Tuttle. 

4. Analysis of lessons. 

5. Illust ration, by Mr. J. Walton. 

6. Holding attention. 

7. Practical application, by Mr. T. G. Young. 

8. Topical arrangement. 

9. Blackboard and slate. 

10. General review in Sunday-school. 

11. A specimen lesson. 

12. Christ the model teacher. 

Infant Classes, Friday Afternoon, 2.30 o'clock. 

1. Sunday-school classification. 

2. The infant class — its organization, teachers, room, ap- 
paratus. 

3. Infant class lessons. 

4. Question drawer. 

IV. Sunday-School Accessories, Friday Afternoon, 3.45. 

1. Architecture ; 2. Furniture ; 3. " Annual " or " Catalogue ; " 
4. Pastor's "Address;" 5. Sunday-School Journal ; 6. "Our 



Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 89 

Sunday-school Card;" 7. Life Guard; 8. Class of Honor; 
9. Cold Water Bands ; 10. Rewards; 11. Missionary circles, etc. ; 
12. Singing classes; 13. Palestine class. 

V. Institute Discipline. 

Mnemonic Aids and Exercises. 
[A portion of eacb session will be spent in drilling the Insti- 
tute in the following exercises. Let all prepare.] 

1. The Ten Commandments. Exodus xx, 3-17. 

2. The Lord's Prayer. Matt, vi, 9-13. 

3. The Apostles' Creed. 

I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of Heaven and 
Earth ; and in Jesus Christ his only begotten son, our Lord, 
who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mar/ 
suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried ; 
that he rose again the third day; that he ascended into heaven' 
and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty, and 
from thence shall come again at the end of the world to judge 
the quick and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Holy 
Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the remission of 
sins, the resurrection of the body, and everlasting life after 
death. 

4. Historic outline. 

x Antedil. 2 Disper. 3 Abrah. 4 Mosa. 5 Dislodg. 6 AlIotm. 
7 Yiceger. judg. 8 Imper. 9 Divis. 10 Captiv. "Home. 12 Revers. 
13 Independ. i4 Savi. 15 Twelve Apos. 
4004—2348=1656. 352. 425. 120. 356. 120. 575. 257. 80. 92. 70. 

5. St. Paul. 

First Exercise : The Apostle — was born in — a city of— in — . 
His earlier name was — . The change of his name from — to — 
probably took place because of — . He says of himself : "lam 
verily a man which am — , born in — , a city of — , yet brought up 
in — * at the feet of — , and taught according to the — of the law of 
the — ." Again he says: " For I also am an — , of the seed of — , 
of the tribe of — ." And again : " An Heb — of the — ; as touch- 
ing the law, a — ; concerning zeal, — the Church; touching the 
righteousness which is in the law — ." By trade Saul was a — . 
He was present, at the martyrdom of — ; probably protecting 
the — of those that— the holy man. Saul was converted at — , 
whither he went breathing out — and — against the — ." He 
carried with him — to — to the — from the — , authorizing him 
'•if he found any of — whether they were — or — ,*' to "bring 
them — unto — ." After his entrance into — he stopped at the 



90 Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 

house of — in — street where he "was — days without — and nei- 
ther did — nor — . By divine command a certain disciple at — ■ 
named — visited and counseled Saul. And straightway Saul 
"preached — in the — , that he is the — of—." This occurred 
probably about A. D. — After this Saul went into — and returned 
again to — . He then went up to — and abode — days. This 
was about — years after his conversion. From Jerusalem he 
went by way of — to — . From — he came to — in — , and thence 
on a mission of relief to the disciples in — . After this Paul 
made— great missionary tours. He went finally from — to — and 
thence by sea to — , where he, though a prisoner, " was suffered 
to dwell by — with a — that kept him.'" Tradition says he died 
a martyr in — about A. D. — . 

Second Exercise, Early Journeys : 1. Saul from T — to J — . 
2. J— to D— , 136 m. 3. D— to A—, and return to D— . 
4. D — to J — , C — , T — , and thence to A — . 5. On mission 
of relief from A — to J — , and return. 

6. Rules for teaching, by Mr. Fitch, of London : 

(1.) Never to teach what you don't quite understand. 
(2.) Never to tell a child what you could make him tell you. 
(3.) Never to give a piece of information without asking for 
it again. (4.) Never to use a hard word if an easy one will 
convey your meaning, and never to use any word at all unless 
you are quite sure it has a meaning to convey, (5.) Never to 
begin an address or lesson without a clear view of its end. 
(6.) Never to give an unnecessary command, nor one which 
you do not mean to see obeyed. (7.) Never to permit any 
child to remain in the class, even for a minute, without some- 
thing to do, and a motire for it. 

7. Dr. Wise's method of studying a lesson : 

(1.) What are the relations of this text ? (2.) What is its 
s>d>je>:t ? (3.) What are the terms which describe the subject ? 
(4.) What is affirmed or denied? (5.) What do the terms of 
affirmation or denial mean ? 1 6.) What is the doctrine or duty 
taught in this text ? 

8. Questions for parables : 

| ollateral Scripture? /"^ oriduct described? 

onsequences recorded? 



entral thought? 

onclusions, doctrinal and practical ? 



C| ollateral Scripture? /"* 

I ircumstances of parable ? I ' 

ustoms referred -to ? i 

haracters introduced? \J 

9. Freeman on the use of illustrations. 

(1.) Illustrations should be selected within range of juvenile 
thought and knowledge. (2.) Must be given in clear and sim- 



Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 91 

pie language. (3.) Must be applicable to the case in hand. 
(4.) Should not be trifling or ludicrous. (5.) Should be made 
as brief as is consistent with clearness. (6.) Should be care- 
fully selected in the preparation of the lesson. (7.) Visible illus- 
trations should be as appropriate and attractive as possible.= 
1. Maps and pictures, (the best that can be procured.) 2. Ob- 
jects presented from nature and art. 



Scranton Sunday-School Institute, November, 1867. 
Preliminary. 

1. Children's reunion, at the Presbyterian Church, Sab- 
bath P. M., 3.15 o'clock. 

2. Introductory sermon, "Christ the Model Teacher," Sab- 
bath evening, 7 o'clock. 

3. Lecture, "Palestine — the Memorial Land," (an account of 
a trip from Joppa to Jerusalem and Damascus in the spring of 
1863.) Monday evening, 7 o'clock. 

4. The Institute prayer-meeting, 4.30 P. M., on Tuesday. 

5. Institute work. 

I. Lectures 
Will be delivered upon — (1.) Sunday-school organization and 
order. (2.) Home, pulpit, and school. (3.) The call, qualifi- 
cations, and culture of Sunday-school teachers. 

II. Scripture Studies. 
(1.) In preparation-classes. The Institute will be divided 
into six or more classes, and, under the direction of as many 
teachers, will examine some selected Scripture lessons, after 
which reports and criticisms upon the methods adopted will be 
received. (2.) In lecture lessons on sacred geography, ar- 
chaeology, etc. 

III. Experimental Teaching. 

(1.) Of infant class. (2.) Of juvenile class. (3.) Simultane- 
ous teaching, illustrated in lessons from the catechism, general 
review, Palestine class, etc. 

IV. Conversation and Illustrations. 
(1.) Holding attention. (2.) Questioning. (3.) Reading. 
(4.) Memorizing. (5.) Drawing lessons. (6.) Analysis. (7.) IT- 



92 Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 

lustration. (8.) Application. (9.) Topical arrangement. 
(10.) Object illustration. 

Y. Institute Discipline. 

The members of the Institute will spend some time in drill 
upon the following: (1.) The books of the Bible. (2.) The 
history of the Jews. (3.) The Bible lands. (4.) The geog- 
raphy of Palestine. (5.) The tabernacle and its service. 



Brooklyn Sunday-School Institute. 

To he held in the Reformed Butch Church, on the Heights, Pierre- 
pont-street, near Henry-street, Brooklyn, L. I, December 16-20, 
1867. Rev. J. H. Vincent, Conductor. 

Committee of Arrangements : 

S. L. Parsons, Chairman ; A. D. Matthews, A. B. Capwell, 
M. Dupuy, I. A. Barker, John Young. 

General Meetings on Monday and Friday Evenings. 

Normal Class Exercises on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thurs- 
day Afternoons and Eveuings. 

Board of Instruction : 

Rev. J. H. Yincent, Conductor. Rev. Z. Eddy, D. D., Brook- 
lyn; Rev. G-eorge L. Taylor, Brooklyn ; Rev. J. Clement French, 
Brooklyn ; Rev. J. B. Thomas, Brooklyn ; Rev. "W. I_ Bucling- 
ton, D. D., Brooklyn ; Rev. D. R. Brewer, Brooklyn ; Rev. C. S. 
Robinson, D. D., Brooklyn ; Rev. N. E. Smith, D. D., Brooklyn ; 
Rev. Robert Lowry, Brooklyn ; Rev. Wayland Hoyt, Brooklyn ; 
Rev. E. O. Andrews, D. D., Brooklyn ; Rev. T. Sewall, D. D., 
Brooklyn ; Rev. C. H. Everest, Brooklyn ; Rev. E. Eggleston, 
Chicago, 111.; W. B. Bradbury, Esq., Bloomfield; Rev. Charles 
E. Knox, Bloomfield ; Rev. T. D. Anderson, D. D., New York ; 
N. A. Calkins, Esq., New York ; James Strong, S. T. D., Flush- 
ing ; Rev. Alfred Taylor, Philadelphia ; A. A. Smith, Esq., 
Rahway ; W. H. Sutton, Jersey City ; Rev. O. H. Tiffany, D. D., 
New Brunswick ; R. W. Raymond, Esq., Brooklyn. 



Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 93 

The music books used will be the "Clarion" aud "Fresh 
Laurels," kindly furnished by W. B. Bradbury, Esq. The 
blackboards used are kindly furnished by J. W. Schermerhorn, 
Esq., 430 Broom e-street, New York. 

Announcements. 

1. Object. — It is the design of this Institute to aid parents, 
pastors, Sunday-school teachers, and other Church officers in 
the holy and delightful work of building up the Church of 
God. 

2. Prayer. — " Except the Lord build the house, they labor in 
vain that build it." Psalm cxvii, 1. " Continue in prayer, and 
watch in the same with thanksgiving." Col. iv, 2. 

3. Punctuality. — The hours and place of meeting are indi- 
cated elsewhere. Let all earnest teachers resolve to be regular 
and punctual in attendance. 

4. Apparatus. — Each person should have a Bible, a blank- 
book, Bible maps, and a lead pencil. 

5. Queries and Suggestions. — Send your questions and written 
suggestions on all subjects to the conductor's table, or to the 
question box at the door. 

6. Normal Class Section. — The body of the church will be re- 
served for the normal class section. 

Scheme. — The general outline followed in the discussions 
and illustrations of the Institute may be found on page 48 of 
this volume. 

I. First General Meeting, Monday Evening. 

President for the evening, Hon. Samuel Booth, Mayor of 
Brooklyn. 

7.30, Opening exercises. Conducted by Rev. J. H. Vincent. 

7.45, The Bible in the Family. Address by Rev. Z. Eddy, 
D.D. 

8.05, The Bible in the Closet. An address by Rev. G. Lansing 
Taylor. 

8.30, The Bible in the Congregation. Address by Rev. J. 
Clement French. 

8.50, The Bible in the Sunday-school. Address by Rev. J. 
B. Thomas, D. D. 

Musical director, George Stowe, Esq. 



94 Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 

II. First Normal Class Exercise, Tuesday Afternoon. 
2.30, Opening exercises. Conducted by Rev. J. M. Buckley. 
2.45, Manners and Customs in the times of the Saviour. 
Address by Rev. W. I. Budington, D. D. 

3.10, The Teachers' Meetings. Presented by Rev. E. Eggle- 
ston. 

3.35, The Teachers' Meeting Illustrated. The Institute will 
be divided into ten preparatory classes or teachers' meetings ; 
these will be placed under the direction of the following gen- 
tlemen, who will illustrate their methods of conducting teach- 
ers' meetings, and of preparing Scripture lessons. Four of the 
classes will study Matt, viii, 1-4; Four, Luke viii, 16-18 ; Two, 
Romans viii, 14-18. 

Teachers : 
Matt, viii, 1-4. Luke viii. 16-18. 

J. D. Reed, Esq., Rev. W. Hoyt, 

A. B. Cap well, Esq., Rev. F. W. Osborn, 

Rev. T. Sewall, D. D., Rev. S. T. Spear, D. D., 

Rev. N. E. Smith, D. D., Rev. C. S. Robinson, D. D. 

Romans viii, 14-18. 
Rev. E. O. Andrews, D. D.,» Rev. J. Clement French. 
4.00, Reports, criticisms, remarks. 
Musical director, William Menzies Adams, Esq. 

LTI. Secokd Normal Class Exercise, Tuesday Evening. 

7.30, Opening exercises. Conducted by A. Woodruff, Esq. 

7.45, Jesus the Model Teacher. An Essay by Rev. D. R. 
Brewer. 

8.05, Blackboard Exercises. By William H. Sutton, Esq. 

8.25, Books, and other Apparatus, for the thorough Study of 
a Lesson. Paper presented by Rev. C. S. Robinson, D. D. 

8.50, The Sunday-school Teacher in the Preparation of his 
Lesson. 

Musical director, William Menzies Adams, Esq. 

IV. Third Normal Class Exercise, Wednesday Afternoon. 

2.30, Opening exercises. Conducted by K E. Smith, D. D. 

2.45, Sunday-school Music. A paper by William B. Brad- 
bury, Esq. 



Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 95 

3.00, Prayer in Sunday-school. Paper presented by Rev. 
N. E. Smith, D. D. 

3.20, Sunday-school Gradation. Paper presented by Rev. 
Charles E. Knox. 

3.50, Infant Class Exercises. 

4.15, Question-drawer. Open to the topics which relate to 
infant and primary class teaching. 

Musical director, George S. Weeks, Esq. 

V. Fourth Normal Class Exercise, Wednesday Evening. 

7.30, Opening exercises. Conducted by Rev. Z. Eddy, D. D. 

7.45, The Sunday-School Teacher; his Object, and what In- 
formation he most needs. Paper presented by Rev. Thomas 
D. Anderson, D. D. 

8.10. Class teaching. The Use of Illustration. By Rev. C. 
S. Robinson, D. D. 

8.35, The Art of Teaching. By K A. Calkins, Esq. 

9.00, Stereoscopic Views of Palestine. By George R. Tre- 
main, Esq. 

Musical director, George S. Weeks, Esq. 

VI. Fifth Normal Class Exercise, Thursday Afternoon. 

2.30, Opening exercises. Conducted by Rev. E. O. An- 
drews, D. D. 

2.45, Importance of Sacred Geography. Paper presented by 
James Strong, S. T. D. 

3.10, Topography of Palestine. Address by Rev. Alfred 
Taylor. 

3.40, Journeys of Jesus. Address by Rev. Robert Lowry. 

4.00, Journeys of Paul. By Rev. E. O. Andrews, D. D. 

4.20, Journeys of Abraham, and Journeys of the Israelites. 
By Rev. J. H. Vincent. 

Musical director, D. P. Horton, Esq. 

VII. Sixth Normal Class Exercise, Thursday Evening. 

7.30, Opening Exercises. Conducted by Rev. J. W. Sarles, 
D.D. 

7.45, Sunday-school Concerts. An address by Andrew A. 
Smith, Esq. 

8.05, Sunday-School Accessories. By R. W. Raymond, Esq 

7 



96 Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 

8.25, Cities and Mountains of Palestine. Lecture and lesson 
by Rev. T. Sewall, D. D. 

8.50, Exercises in Bible History. By Rev. Alfred Taylor. 

9.10, The Sunday-school Tabernacle. Address by Rev. J. 
H. Vincent. 

Musical director, D. P. Horton, Esq. 

VIII. Second General Meeting, Friday Evening. 

President for the evening, Rev. J. H. Vincent. 

7.30, Opening exercises. Conducted by Rev. George Thrall, 
D.D. 

7.45, Pastoral Work of the Superintendent and Teachers. 
Address by Rev. AYayland Hoyt. 

8.05, Sunday-school Teachers and Scholars at the Social 
Meetings of the Church. Address by Rev. Charles H. Everest. 

8.30, Home in the Sunday-school, and the Sunday-school in 
the Home. Address by Rev. O. H. Tiffany, D. D. 

Address by Rev. Z. Eddy, D. D. 

Closing address. 



Lowell 

Methodist Episcopal Sunday-School Institute, 
(January, 1868.) 

First Session, Sabbath, 2.15 P. M. 
Lecture to Sunday-school scholars. 
Topic : MHPSPLLS — a story of Egypt and the Arabian Desert. 

Second Session, Sabbath Evening, 6.30. 
Lecture to parents, by Rev. J. H. Vincent. Topic : Our 
Homes. 

Third Session, Monday Evening, 7.45. 
An eA^ening of sacred song. St. Paul's Methodist Episcopal 
Church. Concert by Mr. Philip Phillips. 

Fourth Session, Tuesday Afternoon, 2.00. 
1. Class exercise: The Value of Divine Truth. 2. Bible 
study. Lesson in New Testament History : " The man blind 



Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 97 

from his birth," John ix, 1-7, 35-38. 3. Reports, criticisms, 
and remarks. 4. Exercise in Bible geography. 

Fifth Session, Tuesday Evening, 7.45. 
1. Report of the committee on the afternoon Bible study. 

2. Illustrative exercise : The Teacher in his Study. 3. Ques- 
tion-drawer. 4. Partial report of the general committee. 

Sixth Session, Wednesday Afternoon, 4.00. 
1. Bible study. Lesson from the Epistles: "Paul's Prayer 
for the Church at Ephesus," Eph. iii, 14-21. 2. Reports, 
criticisms, and remarks. 3. Infant class teaching, with illus- 
trations. 

Seventh Session, Wednesday Evening, 7.45. 
1. Class exercise : The Jewish Tabernacle, with pictorial 
illustrations. 2. Partial report of the general committee. 

3. Question -drawer. 4. Lecture on " Simultaneous Teaching," 
with illustrations. 

Eighth Session, Thursday Afternoon, 2.00. 
1. Class exercise: The Life and Journeys of Paul, with illus- 
trations. 2. Partial report of the general committee. 3. Sun* 
day-school accessories. 

Ninth Session, Thursday Evening, 7.45. 

1. " Walks about Zion," an exercise on the map of Jerusalem. 
2. Final report of the general committee. 3. Question-drawer. 

4. The Call, Consecration, and Culture of Sunday-school Teach- 
ers, a closing address. 

The general committee of the Lowell Methodist Episcopal 
Sunday-School Institute will hold three sessions (on Tuesday, 
Wednesday, and Thursday mornings, at 10 o'clock) for con- 
sultation upon the following practical topics : 

1. Relation of the Sunday-school to the Church. 2. The 
officers of the school, and the manner of their election. 3. The 
Pastor's place in the school. 4. The duties and embarrassments 
of the superintendent. 5. The duties of the Sunday-school 
officers and teachers to the Church. 6. Sunday-school teach- 



98 Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 

ers' meetings. 7. Order of exercises in Sun day-school. 8. How 
can we increase both the intellectual and spiritual power of our 
schools ? 

All persons are earnestly requested to forward to the General 
Committee written opinions and suggestions on the above 
topics. We may have no time for their general discussion in 
the Institute proper, but full reports will be presented by the 
committee at the evening session. 

New York 
Methodist Episcopal Institute, {June, 1868.) 

I. ANNOUNCEMENTS. 

This Institute will be held under the auspices of the New 
York City Sunday-School and Missionary Society of the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church. 

Design of the Institute. — To awaken an interest among 
all classes of our people in the great work of Bible investiga- 
tion and Sunday-school training, to illustrate the best methods 
of teaching, and to encourage and promote the organization of 
normal classes in every Methodist Episcopal Sunday-school in 
our city. 

Scheme. — There will be eight sessions of the Institute, as 
follows : Five evening sessions, presenting the relations of the 
Sunday-school work : 1. To parents. 2. To pastors. 3. To 
superintendents. 4. To teachers. 5. To scholars. 

Three afternoon sessions, illustrating the method of the Sun- 
day-school work : 1. By the pastor. 2. By the superintendent. 
3. By the teacher. 

PROGRAMME. 

I. Monday Evening, 7.45, Parents and Sunday-School. 
1. Opening exercises. 2. Scripture words about home and 
its work, a class exercise. 3. Words from the Sunday-school 
to parents, by Rev. J. M. Buckley. 4. Words from parents to 
the Sunday-school, by Rev. G-. S. Hare. 

n. Tuesday Evening, 7.45, Pastors and the Sunday-School. 
1. Opening exercises. 2. Review of first session. 3. Words 
of experience in Sunday-school work from pastors. Rev. D. O. 



Sunday-School Teachers' Institute. 99 

Ferris, Rev. W. C. Steel, Rev. B. M Adams, Rev. G-. S. Hare. 
4. Written questions and suggestions. 

III. Wednesday Afternoon, Pastors at Sunday-School Work. 

1. Opening exercises. 2. Simultaneous teaching illustrated. 
A class of one hundred young persons will be in attendance to 
aid in the illustration of this subject. (1.) Teaching the cate- 
chism. (2.) Sacred history and geography, by Rev. A. D. 
Vail. (3.) Sacred archseology, with pictorial illustrations, by 
Rev. J. M. Freeman. (4.) Missionary concerts. (5.) Scripture 
recitations. 

IV. Wednesday Evening, 7.45, Superintendent's Work. 

1. Opening exercises. 2. A statement of the superintend- 
ent's duties, by Mr. Joseph Longking. 3. His difficulties, by 
Mr. J. Q. Maynard and other superintendents. 4. Written 
questions and suggestions. 5. Review. 

V. Thursday, P. M., 2.00, Sunday-School Superintendents. 

1. Opening exercises. 2. Order of Sunday-school services 
illustrated. 3. General review of the lesson. 4. The teachers' 
meeting. 

VI. Thursday Evening, 7.45, Sunday-School Teachers. 

1. Opening exercises. 2. Simultaneous lessons reviewed. 

3. The Sunday-school teacher's work, by Rev. A. D. Vail. 

4. The Sunday-school teacher's motives, by Rev. C. D. Foss. 

VII. Friday, P. M., 2.00, Sunday-School Teacher at Work. 

1. Opening exercises. 2. In preparation of the lesson. 3. In 
teaching : (1.) Infant class. (2.) Juvenile class. 

VIII. Friday Evening, 7.45, Sunday-School Scholars. 

t. Opening exercises. 2. Adults as scholars in Sunday- 
school, by Rev. B. M. Adams. 3. The duties of scholars to 
the teacher and officers. 4. Closing words, by Rev. J. E. 
Cookman. 



100 Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 

Michigan 

Methodist Episcopal State Sunday-School Normal Institute, 
{June, 1868.) 

Scheme. — The exercises of the Normal Institute will be di- 
vided into four classes : 

First Class, Bible Study and Teaching. 

Practical illustrations given as follows : 1. How to study a 
lesson. 2. Preparing to teach. 3. Teaching infant and juvenile 
classes. 4. Teaching adult classes. The lessons to be employed 
in the above illustrations are Num. xiv, 40-45 ; Prov. i, 24-33 ; 
Heb. vi, 1-9. Let all prepare them thoroughly. 

Second Class, Sunday-School Experience. 
1. From Presiding Elders and Pastors. 2. From Superin- 
tendents and other officers. 3. From parents, teachers, and 
scholars. 

Third Class, Institute Discipline. 

A class of sixty scholars, between the ages of eight and 
fifteen, will be in attendance, illustrate, and conduct the In- 
stitute in the following exercises: 1. Sunday-school music. 
2. Sacred history and geography. 3. Sacred Archaeology. 
4. Missionary facts. 6. The Catechism. 

Fourth Class, Miscellaneous. 

1. Lectures. 2. Question-drawer. 3. Serial questions. 4. In- 
stitute organization and management. 5. Criticism. 6. Busi- 
ness. 7. The Institute Journal— a paper to be prepared dur- 
ing the Institute, and read at the final session. 

Programme. 
First Session, Tuesday Evening, 7.45. 

1. Devotional. 2. Business. 3. Address of welcome. 4. Lec- 
ture on the Intellectual Value of Spiritual Character, by Kev. 
B. F. Cocker. 



Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 101 

Second Session, Wednesday, A. M., 9.00. 
1. Bible study, one hour. 2. Sunday-school experience, 
Presiding Elders and Pastors, one hour. 3. Institute discipline, 
half an hour. 4. Miscellaneous, half an hour. 

Third Session, Wednesday, P. M., 2.30. 
1. Bible study, one hour. 2. Sunday- school experience, 
superintendents, one hour. 3. Institute discipline, twenty 
minutes. 4. Miscellaneous, forty minutes. 

Fourth Session, Wednesday Evening, 7.45. 
1. Musical entertainment, by Messrs. Pixley and Grannis, of 
Ypsilanti. 2. Lecture on the Organization, Management, and 
Accessories of the Sunday-School. 

Fifth Session, Thursday, A. M., 9.00. 
1. Bible study and teaching, one hour. 2. Sunday-school ex- 
perience, pastors, teachers, and scholars, one hour. 3. Institute 
discipline, twenty minutes. 4. Miscellaneous, forty minutes. 

Sixth Session, Thursday, P. M., 2.30. 
1, Bible study and teaching, one hour. 2. Lecture on Sacred 
Topography, by Dr. Jewell, of Chicago. 3. Institute discipline, 
tl irty minutes. 4. Miscellaneous, forty minutes. 

Seventh Session, Thursday Evening, 7.45. 
1. Institute discipline, thirty minutes. 2. Reading of the 
" Institute Journal," Gr. W. Hough, editor. 3. Closing words. 



Third National 
Sunday-School Convention of the United States, Newark, if. J. 
First Day, First Session, Wednesday, A. M., April 28. 
1. Temporary organization. 2. Address of Welcome, by Hon. 
Theodore Runyon. 3. Permanent organization. 4. Chairman's 
opening speech, by George H. Stuart, Esq. 5. Paper on the 
National Sunday-School Convention of 1832, by J. W. Weir, 
Esq. 



102 Sunday- School Teachers' Institute, 

Second Session, Wednesday, P. M. 
1. Reception of delegates from British Provinces. 2. Re- 
ports from National and State Societies. 3. Conversation on 
Sunday-School Conventions. 

Thikd Session, Wednesday Evening. 
1. Address: "Relation of the Sunday-School Work to Home 
Instruction," by Rev. H. Clay Trumbull. 2. Address by H. 
Thane Miller. 3. Address by Rev. Alexander Sutherland. 
4. Address by Charles M. Norton, of Chicago. 

Second Day, Fourth Session, Thursday, A. M. 
1. Reports from the States. 2. Addresses on the Mission 
Work of the Sunday-School, by Rev. II. W. Beecher, Rev. S. H. 
Tyng, Jr., Ralph Wells, Esq., Rev. Jesse T. Peck, D.D., and 
Rev. John M'Cullogh. 

Fifth Session, Thursday, P. M. 

The Convention met in six sections during the afternoon for 
the discussion of the special duties and methods of different 
claims of laborers. The sections were denominated as follows : 

Section 1. Pastors. Section 2. Superintendents. Section 3. 
Librarians and Secretaries. Section 4. Teachers of senior and 
Bible classes. Section 5. Teachers of juvenile or intermediate 
classes. Section 6. Teachers of infant or primary classes. 

Sixth Session, Thursday Evening. 
1. Address on "The Sunday-School Work in Europe," by 
Rev. John Hall, D. D. 2. Address on "The Sunday-School 
Work and our Country," by Hon. F. T. Frelinghuysen. 3. Ad- 
dress by Rev. Edward Eggleston. 4. Address by Robert Mac- 
kenzie, of Scotland. 

Third Day, Seventh Session, Friday, A. M. 
1. Reports from the sectional meetings. 2. Address and 
Discussion on Teacher Training, opened by B. F. Jacobs, Esq. 

Eighth Session, Friday, P. M. 
1. Discussion on " How shall we increase the Spirituality and 
Religious Efficiency of our Sunday-Schools ? " 2. Address by 



Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 103 

Rev. S. H. Tyng, D. D. 3. Report of Committee on Resolu- 
tions. 

Ninth Session, Friday Evening. 

1. Report of Enrolling Committee. 2. Closing addresses. 

Normal Institute 
For Sunday-school Teachers, under the charge of the Sunday- 
School Union of the Washington District, Baltimore Confer- 
ence, Methodist Episcopal Church. Commencing Sunday, May 
22, and continuing during the week, until Thursday evening, 
May 26, 1871. To be preceded "by sermons in relation to the 
Sunday-school work, preached on Sabbath morning by the pas- 
tors in their respective churches. 

First Session, Sunday Evening at 8 o'clock, Foundry Church. 

Sermon : The Sunday-School Teacher's Work and its Reward, 
by Rev. Dr. Alexander E. Gibson, President of the Sunday- 
School Union. 

The remaining sessions to be held at Wesley Chapel, corner 
of Fifth and F Streets ; exercises commencing promptly at a 
quarter to eight o'clock. All persons interested in Sunday- 
school teaching are cordially invited. In the addresses the 
speakers will, as far as possible, exemplify the lesson to be 
taught in our schools the succeeding Sabbath. 

Second Session, Monday Evening, at 7.45. 

Opening exercises : Singing, " We've 'listed in a glorious 
war." Prayer. Singing, u Let us pray for one another." 

First Topic : " Qualifications and Duties of Sunday-School 
Teachers," by Rev. John B. Van Meter. Analysis : Qualifica- 
tions : Natural and acquired. Duties : Preparation, general 
and special ; discipline ; visiting. Singing : "Dare to do right." 

Second Topic : " Qualifications and Duties of Superintend- 
ents," by Andrew B. Duvall, Esq. Analysis: The superin- 
tendent as a director, a teacher, a man. Singing. Collection. 

Third exercise : Questions on the First and Second Topics, 
propounded by the Audience and answered by C. H. Stocking, 
Esq. 

Singing : " Lord, dismiss us with thy blessing." Benediction. 



104 Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 

Third SESsion, Tuesday Evening, at 7.45. 
Opening exercises : Singing, " Work, for the night is coming ; " 
Prayer; Singing, " Watch and pray." 

First Topic : " Training Classes in the Sunday-School," by 
A. W. Eastlack, Esq. Analysis : Their necessity and practica- 
bility. Needs of Sunday-school teachers. These wants may 
be met by training classes. Course of study. Objections an- 
swered. Singing: "Jesus the water of life will give." 

Second Topic: "Preparation of the Lesson," by Warren 
Choate, Esq. Analysis : Evils of extemporaneous teaching. 
Necessity, advantages, and plan of preparation. Singing. 
Collection. 

Third Topic: "Explanation of the Lesson," by Professor 
George S. Grape, Baltimore, Maryland. Analysis : Its import- 
ance. The Bible. Catechism. Children's errors. Directions : 
(1.) Simplicity. (2.) Examination. (3.) Paraphrase. (4.) Pro- 
gressive explanation. (5.) Wandering. Singing : " Cast thy 
bread upon the waters." Benediction. 

Teachers and friends are requested to prepare written or 
verbal suggestions in regard to the " Revision of the Lesson by 
the Superintendent " under the Third Topic for to-morrow 
evening. 

Fourth Session, Wednesday Evening, at 7.45. 

Opening exercises : Singing, " Never be afraid to speak for 
Jesus ; " Prayer ; Singing, " Work to do for Jesus." 

First Topic: "Illustration of the Lesson," by Rev. J. H. 
Dashiell. Analysis : Intellectual teaching. Adaptation. Sim- 
plicity. Minuteness. Parallel texts. Historical examples. 
Imaginative illustrations. Singing, " Sowing and Reaping." 

Second Topic: "Application of the Lesson," by Rev. J. A. 
Macauley, D. D., Presiding Elder, Washington District. Analy- 
sis : I. What? (1.) Connection between instruction and applica- 
tion. (2.) Personal appeals. II. Why? The home-bringing of 
truth. (1.) Induces conviction. (2.) Leads to conversion. 
(3.) Secures religious culture. Singing. Collection. 

Third Topic : " Revision of the Lesson." I. By the teacher. 
Rufus K Tilt on, Esq. Its importance. What is to be re_ 
vised ? (1.) Outlines of lesson. (2.) Outlines of history. 



Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 105 

(3.) Summaries. II. By the superintendent. The audience is 
requested to express verbal or written remarks upon this topic. 
Written remarks sent up to the stand will be read to the meet- 
ing. Singing : " Soldiers of the Cross." Benediction. 

Fifth Session, Thursday Afternoon, at 2.30. 

Opening exercises : Singing, " O we are volunteers ! " Prayer. 
Singing, " Saviour, like a shepherd lead us." 

First Topic : " Infant Class Teaching." by John C. Harkness, 
Esq. Analysis : Simplicity. Variety. Friendliness. Mode of 
teaching. Capacity of scholars. Comprehension. Conversion 
room. Time for lesson. Singing : " How I long to be like 
Jesus." 

Second exercise : " Miscellaneous observations on the diffi- 
culties of Infant Class Teaching," by infant class teachers. 
Singing. Collection. 

Third exercise : " Practical Remarks in regard to Infant Class 
Teaching," by Superintendents Ashley, Somerville, Terry, 
Timms, Woodward, and others. Singing : " My home is there." 
Benediction. 

Sixth and Last Session, Thursday Evening, at 7.45. 

Opening exercises : Singing, " Only just across the river." 
Prayer. Singing, " Safe within the vale." 

First Topic: "How to Question," by Professor Lippincott, of 
Baltimore, Maryland. Analysis : Uses. Elliptical catechising. 
Direct catechising. Difficulties answered. Singing : "Resting 
by and by." 

Second Topic : " Teacher's Weekly Meeting for preparing the 
Lesson," by David A. Burr, Esq. Analysis : Its objects and its 
advantages. Who should conduct it ? How should it be 
conducted ? What relation should it bear to the regular work 
of the school ? Singing. Collection. 

Third Subject: Miscellaneous Questions on Sunday-school 
Teaching, propounded by the audience and answered. Sing- 
ing : " Together let us sweetly live." Benediction. Social 
reunion. 



10G Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 



New Jersey State Noumal Institute. 

The Plainfield Sunday-School Institute for the development 
of institute and normal class work in New Jersey was in every 
respect a remarkable and gratifying success. Delegates from 
all but four counties of that State were present. Invited guests 
from Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, Illinois, New York, 
and Pennsylvania added greatly to the interest of this Sunday- 
school convocation. Five " public sessions," eight " normal 
sessions," and three "special sessions," completed the pro- 
gramme, which in every particular was carried out, to the 
profit and delight of all who attended. 

The public sessions were held in the largest churches of 
Plainfield. Addresses were delivered as follows : Monday 
evening, Dr. John Hall on " The Bible the Text-Book of the 
Church." Tuesday evening, Dr. Edward Eggleston, " Froebel 
and his Educational System," Ralph Wells on " The Conver- 
sion of Little Children." Wednesday evening, Eev. H. Clay 
Trumbull on " Sunday-School Progress," Rev. Alfred Taylor on 
" Common Sense in Sunday-School Work," Rev. W. F. Crafts 
on "Religious Object-Teaching." Thursday evening, Rev. 
S. H. Tyng, Jr., on " The Sunday-School Teacher Selected and 
Trained," C. B. Stout, Esq., on " The Blackboard in Sunday- 
School." Friday evening, Rev. George A. Peltz on " Home, 
Sweet Heme," Hon. John Hill, Albert Woodruff, Esq, etc., etc. 

The " special ses.4ons # " were held at four o'clock each after- 
noon of Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. The first was a 
children's meeting, at which addresses were delivered by Rev. 
J. S. Ostrander and Rev. W. F. Crafts. Miss Sarah J. Timanus 
conducted the second special session on Thursday afternoon, 
illustrating her method of teaching an infant-class. A similar 
illustration was given on Friday afternoon by Miss Hattie N. 
Morris. 

The important practical feature of the Plainfield Institute 
was the series of normal sessions held during the day. These 
exercises took the form of conversations on topics especially 
interesting to the conductors of institutes and normal classes. 

The following subjects were discussed : " The Grounds of 
the Demand for Sunday-School Institutes and Normal Classes," 



Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 107 

"The Forms in which such Organizations may Exist," "The 
various Exercises by which they may be rendered Profit- 
able." 

Programmes for institutes were proposed and examined. 
Much time was spent in conversation on the order to be 
observed in a Church normal class. Outlines of study for such 
classes were drawn up. The duties of an institute conductor 
were carefully considered. A conversation was held on 
'• Teachers' Meetings." The conversations were either intro- 
duced or summed up by brief papers. Rev. J. S. Ostrauder 
read a paper on "The Conductor's Duties." J. B. Tyler, Esq., 
on "Programmes." Miss S. J. Timanus prepared an abstract 
of the conversation on "The Demand for Institutes," etc. 
J. IT. Kellogg, Esq., on " Teachers' Meetings," etc. All proposed 
exercises were illustrated before the Institute. 

A very elaborate paper on " A Sunday-School Curriculum " 
was presented by Rev. II. C. M'Cook, of Philadelphia. 

Among the Sunday-school leaders from abroad (besides 
those already named) who gave counsel and encouragement to 
this grand enterprise were Dr. J. Alden, of the Normal School 
in Albany; L. D. Vail, of Philadelphia; I. Newton Baker, 
Editor of the Sunday- School Times; Rev. C. Munger, of Maine; 
Rev. C. P. Hard, of Rochester, N. Y. ; J. E. Searles, Jr., of New 
Haven ; Mr. Ilerrick, of New York ; Frank Ferris, of South 
Norwalk, Conn. ; Miss Hanson, of Salem, Mass. 

Of the Institute the Sunday-School Times re- 
marks : 

In many respects it was a very model of a Sunday-school 
gathering. Free from all conventionality, the arrangement of 
exercises secured the widest interchange of thought and the 
largest liberty of speech. The tone of the " Conversations," 
which were wisely substituted for every thing like mere 
speech-making, or formal question and answer, was thoroughly 
sincere, thoughtful, and free from any savor of pedantry. 
Such papers as were presented were terse, concise, and of solid 
value. A spirit of devoted truth-seeking and devout feeling 
characterized the whole assemblage. The amount of chaff in 
the exercises was merelv trifling, while an abundance of the 



108 Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 

finest wheat was gathered at every winnowing of the mass of 
thought and experience ^vhich was heaped up in the store- 
house of the Institute. 

To our mind the Institute marks a new era in the history of 
the cause in this country. We believe that its motto, as enun- 
ciated through the expression of the Conductor, " A Normal 
Class for every Church and Mission Sunday-school,'' will yet 
be realized. Its recommendation of a Sunday-school train- 
ing of theological students, we believe, will not be ineffectual. 
It will set so many warm-hearted pastors to work, through its 
strong and potent influences, for the preparation of a Christian 
teaching element in their congregations, that the example 
must prove contagious. We believe our ministers, convinced 
of this need, will soon press it, not only upon their congrega- 
tions, but upon the theological institutions of their respective 
Churches. 



Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 109 



XII. 

PREPARATION FOR AN INSTITUTE. 



For local and general institutes some previous 
preparation is needed besides that expended upon 
the programme. 

1. It is important to select the proper persons to 
aid in " carrying out " the programme. If a con- 
densed address of fifteen minutes is required, do not 
employ for the purpose a notoriously tedious essa} T ist 
or lecturer, who, having obtained" the floor, will keep 
it for any length of time in spite of the conductor's 
hints and bell-taps. Do not engage men simply be- 
cause of their personal worth, their relation to the 
church in which you meet, or the public esteem in 
which they are held as professional men. We know 
more than one excellent doctor of law, medicine, 
or divinity, and more than one superior jurist, whom 
we should not select to instruct a class of Sab- 
bath-school teachers or to entertain an audience of 
Sabbath-school people. General Clinton B. Fisk, in 
writing about a certain convention, said : " Pray that 
the gift of ' speakin' in meetin' ' may be measurably 
abridged for the week." Let us select men who have 
something to say, and have also the gift of stopping 
at the right time. 

2. Have all officers and persons who are to take a 
leading part in the exercises appointed sufficiently 
long beforehand to warrant ample preparation, and 
such adjustment of their business as to insure regular 



110 Sunday- School Teacheks' Institute. 

attendance. Insist upon a promise of such attend- 
ance so as to guard against the slightest probability 
of disappointment. There is a successful layman in 
lS"ew York who, when an institute programme is 
made out, forwards a copy and addresses a note to each 
party interested in it, and the day before that for 
which any special exercise is announced he addresses 
a second communication to the party responsible for 
it, to prevent forgetfulness and insure attendance. 

3. Select a good room. Have it ready in time. It 
is a serious hinderance to the success of an institute 
to find at the appointed hour a room just opened, 
cold, half-swept, or full of dust. 

4. Let ample notice be given. See that the local, 
secular, and religious papers frequently refer to the 
institute. Pay them for the service if necessary. 
Prepare pulpit notices and send them, not by mail, 
but by some committee, to the several pastors, whose 
cordial approval must by all means be secured. Large 
posters in conspicuous places are sometimes used for 
advertising institutes. Don't be afraid of a little 
expense. 

5. Request those in charge of the regular weekly 
prayer-meetings of the several churches to make the 
Sunday-school cause the topic of conversation and 
prayer at the meeting immediately preceding the 
institute. A special prayer-meeting for the success 
of the institute may be held. 

* 6. Request pastors to preach on the same subject 
the preceding Sabbath. A circular indicating three 
or four topics would not be improper. 

7. Prepare a complete list of Sunday-school officers 
and teachers connected with the schools to be repre- 
sented in the institute. Register these in an Institute 



Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. Ill 

Roll-Book, and send a special " card of membership " 
with an earnest appeal in the form of a circular to 
evei^ individual thus enrolled. Request from each a 
reply pledging attendance. Inclose a blank for the 
purpose. It may be a good plan to send to each 
superintendent a certain number of cards for " senior 
scholars," inviting such to a place in the institute. 
A personal invitation will often bring out persons 
who would otherwise be entirely indifferent. 

8. Furnish your institute room for the occasion. 
Have Bible pictures and maps on the wall. Secure 
the maps necessary to illustrate all parts of Bible 
geography. Place a large, clean blackboard on the 
platform, furnish a rubber or brush, and a supply of 
crayons. Hang a clock where the conductor and 
teachers can see it. Provide an organ or melodeon — 
a piano also, if practicable. On the conductor's 
table place a " call-bell." Buy a full supply of paper 
and pencils for the use of the institute. In every 
seat put Bibles, singing-books, and programmes, and 
do this before the hour for commencing. You need 
a large dictionary. Sometimes a verbal criticism is 
or ought to be made, and it is well to have an author- 
ity convenient. For the same reason, such a Biblical 
Cyclopaedia as Smith's Unabridged ought to be on 
the table. It will not always appear pedantic to 
have Greek and Hebrew lexicons for reference. 

9. Let the whole preparation for an institute con- 
template the improvement of teachers. Don't spoil 
it by consulting the public taste. You do not mean 
to entertain the public, but to prepare for edifying 
them. Have your own way, and rather close the 
door against the young and frivolous than allow them 
to degrade the character of your work. 



112 Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 

Do not consider great numbers as necessary to suc- 
cess. Ten earnest teachers can fill a meeting with 
interest. I heard Ralph Wells say one day that the 
best Sunday-school meetings he had ever attended 
were incidental conversations at the close of some 
regular service, when a few met at the door or in the 
aisle and some question was started of practical im- 
portance and every body said about it just what he 
thought, and in an entirely informal way. 

11. Resolve to have a season of profit. There is a 
great deal in simply willing a thing to be. Ten 
loungers in different parts of a church, wondering 
why nobody comes, looking at their watches to see 
whether they had not better adjourn sine die because 
so few have arrived, groaning over a lack of interest 
in the cause — such men will soon disperse, to report 
sad delinquencies in their fellows. But should one 
earnest man summon the rest to the front seats, urge 
all to wrest from the present disappointment a rich 
blessing, and give all something to do, the institute 
would be successful. 

12. If strangers from abroad are expected, let the 
committee of arrangements see that preparations are 
made for conducting guests to their homes promptly. 
Provide more homes than you may have pledged 
names of delegates. 

13. As for the place of holding an institute, let it 
sometimes be where most needed, and not where 
most welcome. A few living souls from one locality 
passing over into a Macedonian neighborhood may 
find no less profit to themselves in an institute 
which shall quicken slothful, lukewarm, unawak- 
ened Church-members into a new life and service. 

14. On each programme or on a separate circular 



Sunday- School Teachees' Institute. 113 

may be printed such of the following "Directions" 
and "Mottoes" as may meet the approval of the 
" Committee on Preparation : " 

OUR SUNDAY-SCHOOL INSTITUTE 

WILL SOON COMMENCE ITS SESSIONS. 

Dl RECTIONS: 

1. Pastors, Parents, Sunday-School Officers and Teachers, the 
Scholars, and all others who are interested in the study of the 
Word of God, are cordially invited to attend. 

2. Ascertain the day and date of opening, and resolve to 
be present regularly and punctually until the close of the In- 
stitute. 

3. Bring with you a Bible, Bible maps, blank-book, and pen- 
cil, and take full notes of the proceedings. 

4. Study the lessons assigned with great care. 

5. Pray at the fireside and in the closet for God's presence 
and blessing. • 

6. Send to the Conductor's table any suggestions or inquiries 
you wish to make. It is not necessary that you sign your 
name. 

7. Invite your friends and fellow-workers to attend the In- 
stitute. 

8. Frequently, fervently, and with faith, ask God's blessing 
upon all our exercises. 

PROGRAMME MOTTOES: 

The things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the 
same commit thou to the faithful men, who shall be able to teach others 
also.— 2 Tra. ii, 2. 

God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily proph- 
ets, thirdly teachers. — 1 Coe. xii, 28. 

Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth 
not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.— 2 Tim. ii, 15. 

He who neglects God's word, and saith 

"I know God," is deceived; 
The truth that quickeneth through faith 

His heart hath not received ; 
Belief that comes from heaven's abode 
Inclines man to the word of God. — Gellert. 



114 Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 



THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL TEACHER TO HIS CLASS. 

" On the next Sunday — who knows? — perhaps I shall rest in the grave- 
yard. 

Some one perhaps of yourselves — a lily, broken untimely, 

Bow down his head to the earth. Why delay I ? The hour is accom- 
plished. 

Warm is the heart. I will sow y for to-day grows the harvest of heaven." 
(Tegneb, Longfellow's Translation.) 



XIII. 

THE OFFICERS OF AN INSTITUTE. 

1. An institute must have leaders who possess en- 
thusiasm, common sense, tact, and experience. No 
community need go far to find a man competent to 
conduct a Sunday-school Institute. ' It is not eloquent 
lectures we need. Blackboard ingenuities, dissolving 
from acrostic into enigma, from enigma into rhyme, 
etc., are not necessary to good institutes. Elaborate 
essays, brilliant class-exercises, marvelous object-les- 
sons, are not indispensable. A plain old farmer in 
Western New York listened for a long time to some 
details of method by "representative men," as they 
were called, at a Sunday-school Convention. He then 
said : " Mr. Chairman, in our school we begin the 
session with common sense, continue it with common 
sense, and close it with common sense." The old man's 
growl, for it was nothing more, had after all a good 
undertone. And we need to be frequently reminded 
that after sanctified earnestness we need nothing so 
much as common sense in our Sunday-school work. 
Now let ten, fifty, or one hundred earnest men and 



Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 115 

women meet together to compare difficulties and 
plans, to aid and edify each other, and I am confident 
that the institute cailnot be a failure. The man who 
is to take charge of such meetings should be ac- 
quainted with the practical details of the Sunday- 
school, and should at the same time be competent to 
manage a public meeting — should have at least a 
slight acquaintance with parliamentary usages. 

2. Samuel P. Bates, Esq., a distinguished public 
school educator, in his lecture on the " Method of 
Teachers' Institutes," says concerning the President 
of such a body : "He should in the first place have 
placed in his hands an exact programme of exercises, 
detailing the time which each is to occupy, and a 
limitation upon that which is allowed to each person 
in debate. When the time has arrived for an exer- 
cise to close it is his duty to give prompt notice of 
the fact, and announce and be ready to enter imme- 
diately upon that which is to follow. Much of the 
interest and profit depend upon the promptness and 
dispatch with which the presiding officer brings on 
and closes the exercises as marked down in the pro- 
gramme." Says Kev. Alfred Taylor: "He should 
be an earnest man, prompt, decided, courteous, well 
acquainted with the rules of deliberative bodies. 
He should keep the meetings moving briskly, confine 
speakers in discussion to the subject announced to be 
discussed, and have courage enough to stop, without 
respect of persons, any speaker who exceeds his 
allotted time, if a certain time has been allotted." 

3. The Secretary should be able to report the best 
things of an institute in such a systematic and 
abridged form that the reading of his minutes will 
form a resume of the session, and have all the advan- 



116 Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 

tages of a conductor's review. Indeed, every mem- 
ber should keep full notes. The Secretary may put 
a syllabus of the proceedings of each session on the 
blackboard. 

4. The opening exercises of an institute should be 
models of order and fervor. Let no notions of pro- 
priety chill the spiritual zeal of such an occasion. 
Remember the spiritual aim of the Sabbath-school 
and of the institute. Now and then engage in a 
brief audible or silent prayer during the session. 
Sing, read, and pray " with the spirit and with the 
understanding also." Dr. Edward Eggleston says on 
the subject of singing at Sunday-school conventions : 
"Nothing helps a convention more than good sing- 
ing. By good singing we mean also religious singing. 
Do not use dull hymns, nor hymns that are not just 
in the key of the spirit of the convention. Sabbath- 
school music, full of enthusiasm and of spiritual feel- 
ing, is the very best. A good chorister, who under- 
stands singing with devotional effect, should be 
selected beforehand to lead the convention, and the 
monotony of the exercises should frequently be broken 
by singing one or two appropriate stanzas." 

5. We may add to these suggestions the counsel 
given by Professor Bates to the Instructors of public 
school institutes. They apply to all who attempt in 
Sabbath-school institutes to lecture and teach. He 
says : u The Instructor should be apprised of the part 
he is to perform in time for him to make careful 
preparation, and be able to present well -digested 
views. In order to discharge his duties profitably, 
he ought to be able to answer in a clear manner the 
following questions : For what purpose do scholars 
pursue this branch? Are the methods of instruction 



Sunday-School Teachers' Institute. 117 

which have heretefore been practiced such as are 
calculated to secure the best and the largest results ? 
If not, what changes can be made to improve them ? 
Can I develop and elaborate the plan which I would 
adopt in teaching this branch, so as to secure the re- 
sults for which the study is pursued, and at the same 
time secure the interest and enthusiasm of my pupils? 
Until an Instructor can answer these questions intel- 
ligently, he is not prepared to stand up before a com- 
pany of teachers and demand their attention." 



XIV. 

SUNDAY-SCHOOL TOPICS. 



We present a large number of subjects which from 
time to time claim the attention of Sabbath-school 
\Vorkers. The classification of them may be helpful 
in making selections. 

I. The Family. 

1. How may home help the Sunday-school ? 

2. How may Sunday-school help home ? 

3. How may we have a Home Sunday-school in every family ? 

4. Even if family instruction were of the best kind, why 
would the Sunday-school still be valuable? 

5. What peculiar advantages as a school of religion does the 
family possess ? 

6. How may the family aid in the work of the pulpit and of 
the social meetings of the Church ? 

7. Why should parents attend Sunday-school ? 

8. The " Mother's Meeting," and its relation to the Sunday- 
school. 

9. How may family prayer be rendered a help to Sunday- 
school work ? 



118 Suxday- School Teachers' Institute. 



II. The Church. 

10. The Sunday-school a part of the Church. 

11. The Better Xante : Bible School of the Church, or Bible 
Service of the Church. 

12. The Early Church a school, and all its members disciples. 

13. Paul's Model Church School. Col. iii, 16 * 

14. Special services in the Church, such as Conferences, Dedi- 
cations, etc. Should they interfere with the Sunday-school 
session ? 

15. Sunday-schools and " class-meetings." 

16. Sunday-schools and Church prayer-meetings. 

17. How may the prayer-meetings be made more attractive 
and profitable 2 

18. The complete Sunday-school idea in the Bible. 

19. What are the duties of the ruling officers of the Church 
to the Simd ay-school ? 

20. Should children attend the regular preaching service of 
the Church ? 

21. The duty of all Church members to the Sunday-school. 

22. The value of denominational schools. 

23. Should the distinctive doctrines of a denomination be 
taught in its Sunday-school ? 

24. The care of converted children. 

25. The Church paying all Sunday-school bills. 

III. The Pastor. 

26. What is the relation of the Pastor to the Sunday-school 
of his Church ? 

27. What are his duties while in his study to the Sunday- 
school ? 

28. What are his duties to the Sunday-school while making 
his pastoral visits ? 

29. What are his duties to the Sunday-school while in the 
pulpit ? 

30. What are his duties in the Sunday-school itself? 

31. Should he ever teach a class ? 

* See Dr. Adam Clarke's suggestions on the punctuation of this verso. 



Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 119 

32. What relation does he sustain, and what obligations does 
he owe, to the teachers' meeting and normal class ? 

33. What should every Sunday-school do for its Pastor? 

34. How may a Pastor interest the children in his preaching ? 

35. How may a Pastor most effectually secure the co-operation 
of his Sunday-school teachers ? 

36. The Pastor and the Catechism. 

IV. Sunday-School Officers. 

37. The list of officers and committees needed in a good 
school.* 

38. The model Superintendent described. 

39. The Superintendent's difficulties. 

40. The Superintendent as a teacher. 

41. The Superintendent and the general review. 
. 42. The mistakes of some Superintendents. 

43. Moses as a model for the Sunday-school Superintendent. 

44. The Assistant Superintendent — why needed? His duties 
specified. 

45. Duties and difficulties of the Sunday-school Secretary, 
Treasurer, Chorister, Librarian, Sexton, etc. 

46. " To what extent is the Superintendent of a country Sun- 
day-school responsible for its continuance during the whole 
year ? " 

47. How distribute library books ? 

48. Can we dispense with the Sunday-school library ? 

V. In the Sunday-School. 

49. What is the best hour for holding Sunday-school ? 

50. How long should a session continue ? 

51. How much time should be given to the class study of the 
lesson ? 

52. How much time to the general review ? 

53. Are two sessions a day advisable ? 

54. The model Sunday-school room described. 

55. Order of exercises. 

56. Uniform lessons — their value. 

* Don't forget to write down first of all— The Pastoe. 



120 Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 

57. Where eacli class cannot have a separate room, how may 
they be guarded against interruption during the recitation 
hour ? 

58. The opening prayer. 

59. Scripture-readings at the opening of school. 

60. How shall habits of reverence among our scholars be 
promoted ? 

61. The closing exercises. 

62. The blackboard in the Sunday-school ? 

63. Variety and monotony in the order of exercises. 

64. Kegular and punctual attendance of teachers and schol- 
ars — how secured ? 

65. How shall visitors in Sunday-school be treated ? 

66. Who is responsible for good order in school ? 

67. Should strangers be invited to address the school ? 

68. Describe a model Sunday-school address. 

69. How may the art of talking to children be cultivated ? 

VI. The Teacher Chosen and Prepared. 

70. What is a Sunday-school teacher's peculiar mission? 

71. Who should select Sunday-school teachers? 

72. The teacher's motive. 

73. What is the most important element in the Sunday-school 
teacher's character ? 

74. The model teacher described. 

75. Should we ever employ unconverted Sunday-school 
teachers ? 

76. If employed, how secure their speedy conversion ? 

77. How promote spirituality among Sunday-school teachers ? 

78. Jesus the model for Sunday-school teachers. 

79. Why does the teacher need some general preparation for 
his work ? 

80. What should this general preparation comprise ? 

81. How may it be secured ? 

82. What are Sunday-school institutes ? 

83. How does an institute differ from a convention ? 

84. Sunday-school normal classes. 

85. How may a normal class be organized in each Church ? 

86. How shall we train up our scholars to be efficient teachers ? 



Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 121 

87. Private prayer a preparation for Bible teaching. 

88. How best to acquire a knowledge of each lesson. 

89. How to cultivate the memory. 

90. The habit of thinking while engaged in daily labor — 
how promoted ? 

91. Teachers' meetings — where, when, and how to hold 
them? 

92. "Who should conduct a teachers' meeting? 

93. Teachers' meetings in country places. 

94. What is a good order of exercises for a teachers' meeting ? 

95. The power of personal character in the teachers. 

VII. The Teacher in School 

96. ^Regularity and punctuality. 

97. Seven minutes early. 

98. Power of example in a teacher. 

99. The teacher in the maintenance of order. 

100. Devotional spirit in the teacher a means of promoting 
reverence on the part of scholars. 

101. What is it to teach ? 

102. Use of " Question Books " or "Lesson Papers" in the 
class. 

103. The eye and the will in teaching. 

104. The difference between senior and infant class teaching. 

105. Gomuion mistakes of teaching. 

106. Substitutes for genuine teaching. 

107. The teacher's difficulties. 

108. How to bring children to Christ. 

109. How to get and keep the attention. 

110. How to put questions. 

111. How. to win the love of our scholars. 

112. Is punishment of Sunday-school scholars allowable ? 

113. Illustration in teaching. 

114. Use of objects, the slate and the blackboard, in teaching. 

115. How to prepare a class for the general review by the 
Superintendent. 

116. The Sunday-school teacher a class-leader. 

117. How does the work of the teacher resemble that of the 
preacher and pastor ? 



122 Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 

118. How do they differ ? 

119. How to deal with refractory scholars ? 

120. The teachers' prayer-meeting. 

VIII. Sunday-School Scholars. 

121. How may we secure the regular attendance of our 
pupils? 

122. Is it well to offer prizes for attendance, or for memoriz- 
ing Scripture? 

123. Should scholars attend more than one school ? 

124. How win and retain young people and adults? 

125. Sunday-school gradation. 

126. How may we secure for every pupil a valuable reference 
Bible, which he will always retain for its intrinsic worth ? 

127. Are separate religious services for children, in place of 
the regular Church service, to be encouraged ? 

128. Are children's prayer-meetings to be encouraged ? If 
so, how and by whom should they be conducted ? 

129. Special revival services in Sunday-school — by whom to 
be conducted ? 

130. What dangers to be guarded against in connection with 
such services? 

131. Duties of scholars to the officers of the Sunday-school. 

132. Duties of scholars to the teachers. 

133. To what peculiar dangers are our young people ex- 
posed ? 

134. How may we lead our young people to become intelli- 
gent, stable, and useful Church members ? 

IX. Infant Classes. 

135. By whom taught ? 

136. Peculiarity about the lessons for an infant class. 

137. The room and its appointments. 

138. Literature for little people. 

139. Order of exercises in the infant class. 

130. Object and blackboard teaching in the infant class. 

141. Division into small classes. 

142. Very early conversion practicable. 



Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 123 

X. Music. 

143. Sacred music in Sunday-school. 

144. The latest Sunday-school music. 

145. The old hymns and tunes — how far should they have 
place in Sunday-school ? 

146. The Sunday-school and congregational singing in the 
sanctuary. 

147. Where, when, and how shall new Sunday-school tunes 
be taught ? 

XI. Week-day Work. 

148. Visiting scholars at their homes. 

149. Visiting the sick. 

150. Scholars visiting the teacher. 

151. Canvassing for scholars who attend no school. 

152. Week evening recreations, lectures, etc., under Sunday- 
school auspices, for the young people. 

153. Sunday-school concerts, exhibitions, picnics, festivals, 
etc., etc. 

154. The books and papers we send home — their influence. 

155. Week evening Bible classes. 

156. The Sunday-school at the week-evening prayer-meetings. 

XII. Country Sunday-Schools. 

157. Their peculiar difficulties and demands. 

158. Why, and how, keep them up through the winter ? 

159. How to organize and manage country Sunday-schools ? 

XIII. Philanthropic. 

160. What claim have the children of irreligious people upon 
the Church ? 

161. How may Sunday-schools be organized and sustained 
in destitute sections ? 

162. The Sunday-school scholar as a home missionary. 

163. How promote the spirit of benevolence in the Sunday- 
school ? 

164. The Sunday-school and Foreign Missions. 

165. The Temperance Cause in Sunday-school. 



124 Sunday- School Teachers- Institute. 

166. The Bible Society and the Sunday-school. 

167. The distribution of tracts by the Sunday-school. 

168. Sabbath observance and the Sunday-school. 

169. How shall we win the careless and neglected millions 
of our land to the Sunday-school, the sanctuary, and the 
Saviour ? 

170. What may the Sunday-school do for the homes of the 
degraded ? 

XIV, Miscellaneous. 

171. Our one text-book — the Bible. 

172. The great value of the early study of God's word. 

173. The Sunday-school and the American nation. 

174. How promote sincere catholicity among Sunday-school 
workers ? 

175. Union and denominational schools. 

Special Topics for Methodist Episcopal Institutes. 

BY KEV. J. H. C. DOSH. 

176. How can Pastors most successfully cany out that pro- 
vision of our Discipline which requires them "to publicly 
catechise the children in the Sunday-school and at special 
meetings appointed for that purpose ? " 

177. The duties and responsibilities of the "Committee on 
Sunday-schools," as provided for in our Discipline. 

178. Do we '" form Sunday-schools in all our congregations 
where ten children can be collected for that purpose? " 

179. Are all our schools so organized as to be " auxiliary to 
the Sunday-School Union of the Methodist Episcopal Church ?" 

180. How frequently do we " preach on the subject of Sun- 
day-schools and religious instruction in each congregation ? " 

181. Are all our Sunday-schools organized into missionary 
societies according to our Discipline ? 

182. Are our Sunday- schools organized under that "form of 
a constitution for Sunday-school Societies " recommended in 
the Discipline ? 

183. The benefits of a teachers' institute for each district. 

184. Should each circuit have its teachers' institute ? 

185. Should we have a Conference Sunday-school Missionary ? 



Suxd ay- School Teachers' Institute. 125 

186. The necessity of a large and popular weekly Sunday- 
school periodical adapted to officers and teachers, parents and 
children, and the general reader. 

187. The Sunday-School Union of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church — its history and necessity. 

Why are collections for the Sunday-School Union not taken 
up in many of our charges ? 

188. Why should our Sunday-School Union be heartily sus- 
tained by the Church ? 

189. Normal Department of the M. E. Sunday-School Union 
— its origin, object, and practical workings. 

190. Are we sufficiently exact in reporting our Sunday-school 
statistics ? 



PAET II. 



Wit $inuU$-£th<M>\ pwrnal §te$$. 



SUNDAY-SCHOOL NORMAL CLASS. 



I. 

THE CHURCH NORMAL CLASS. 

1. The Teachers' Meeting for the preparation of 
the Sundaj'-school lesson is in itself a normal class, 
and should be conducted with refereuce to the illus- 
tration of methods rather than to the acquisition of 
knowledge. Teachers should always come to such 
meeting with the subject-matter of the lesson in their 
mind, that the time may be spent in talking on the 
proper manner of questioning, illustrating, removing 
difficulties, making practical application, recapitulat- 
ing, etc., in the class on the ensuing Sabbath. Every 
part of the teacher's work in the school should, from 
time to time, come up for review and discussion. 

(1.) The best conductor of such services should be 
placed in charge, be he pastor, superintendent, or 
teacher. No official prerogative should prevent the 
employment of the best man or woman for the 
position- 

(2.) The meeting should be held in a cheerful, com- 
fortable place. A normal- class room in the church 
should be fitted up in the best style with tables, 
chairs, carpets, maps, pictures, blackboard, cabinet 
of archaeological curiosities and illustrative apparatus?, 



130 Suxday- School Teachers' Institute. 

library of books, especially on the art of teaching, 
magazines, and other periodicals, etc. 

(3.) The meeting should be held regularly. Noth- 
ing should ever be allowed to interfere with it. 

(4.) The sessions should generally be too short. Bet- 
ter to have the members of the class go away ten 
times regretting that the service w T as not longer, than 
to go away once fealing that they had been wasting 
time. 

(5.) We add to the above these counsels : Never 
scold those present because so many are absent. A 
cheerful spirit is essential in the teachers' meeting. 

(6.) Resolve to have a good and profitable meeting 
even though but three attend. Nowhere is the Mas- 
ter's 'promise, "Where two or three are gathered," 
etc., more likely to be fulfilled than in the Sunday- 
school teachers' meeting. 

(7.) Make an arrangement with the teachers who 
may not be able to be present at the meeting to spend 
that hour in the study of the lesson at home. This 
will promote a feeling of unity, deepen the interest 
of all, and kindle a desire on the part of all to 
attend. 

(8.) Occasionally spend a short season in fervent 
prayer and in the relation of personal religious ex- 
perience. 

(9.) Occasionally introduce a juvenile class to be 
taught by one of the teachers, whose method, after 
their dismissal, nvdy be examined with candor and 
kindness by the rest of the teachers. 

(10.) Have a list of business questions to be asked 
at each session, or at the first meeting each month, 
as the circumstances of the school may require. The 
following is proposed as a specimen : 



Sunday- School Xokmal Class. 131 

1.) Are any teachers to be elected ? 

2.) Are any scholars to be elected ? 

3.) Are any sick, or in need of assistance ? 

4.) Are there any complaints or criticisms to be of- 
fered upon the general management of the school, or 
upon the deportment of teachers or scholars ? 

5.) Keports from officers or committees ? 

2. Another Form of the Teachers' Meeting is 
that which connects it with the regular week-evening 
prayer-meeting, when the lesson for the ensuing 
Sabbath is taken up by the minister in a brief lecture 
or address. After this service of exposition, prayer, 
and praise, the teachers remain for another hour of 
study and conversation. This is good as a temporary 
expedient. It brings the lesson of the week before 
the church. It gives point to the prayers. It enables 
very busy people to fulfill their engagements to both 
the prayer-meetiug and the teachers' meeting, and 
thus economizes time. We doubt, however, the pro- 
priety of this as a permanent arrangement. Let it 
be properly conducted and the teachers will soon 
demand a whole evening for their meeting. 

3. The Senior Scholars' Section. — Every pastor 
and superintendent should look to the demands of 
the future, and should lay hold of the undeveloped 
talent among the young people of the Church and 
put it into processes of training. One plan for 
accomplishing this result is to have the teachers each 
year elect from five to fifteen young persons from 
the advanced classes, wdio shall agree to attend the 
teachers' meeting regularly and be enrolled as senior 
scholars. They remain in their several classes as 
before, but are expected to be thorough in recitation, 
correct in deportment at school, and regular in attend- 



132 Sunday- School Teachees' Institute. 

ance upon all sessions of the teachers' meeting. This 
" Normal Section " of the weekly meeting of teach- 
ers will exert a salutary influence on the entire school. 
On page 32 of this volume will be found a practical 
suggestion of great value in this connection. The 
adoption of a course of study such as is recom- 
mended on page 59, or in the programme of the 
Normal Department to follow, would greatly increase 
the power of this association of teachers and senior 
scholars. 

4. The Church Normal Class, under the direc- 
tion of the pastor, or other competent instructor by 
him appointed, is the highest and best and most 
promising development, as it is the most urgent 
demand, of our modern Sunday-school work. By it 
the pastor prepares assistants for himself and bis suc- 
cessors in the important function of teaching in the 
Church of God. By it a high standard is contin- 
ually uplifted before the school. The confidence of 
thoughtful people in the purpose and efficiency of the 
Sunday-school is confirmed or re-assured. It becomes 
a point of ambition with advanced pupils to be 
thought worthy of promotion. It increases the effi- 
ciency of a minister as a teacher, and thus increases 
his pulpit power. It holds a large reserve force of 
teaching talent, upon which the superintendent may 
in due time draw, and thus increases the intellectual 
and spiritual weight and force of the school. 

It was the author's privilege in 1857 to organize 
and conduct precisely such a class in Illinois. It 
was composed of young people who had never taught. 
It was called a "Normal Class." It was held regu- 
larly every Sabbath in a room fitted up for the pur- 
pose, and known as the " Normal-Class Room." Its 



Sunday- School Xokmal Class. 133 

exercises consisted of Bible lessons studied with refer- 
ence to the illustration of true methods of teaching, 
and of regular recitations from the admirable little 
volume on " The Sunday-School and Bible Teaching," 
by Rev.. James Inglis. This class was the fruit of a 
special Bible class for teachers and scholars organized 
by the author in 1855, and held on Saturday after- 
noons for several years. This was called the " Pales- 
tine Class," and was designed, outside of Sunday- 
school, to prepare teachers, by a training in Bible his- 
tory and geography, the better to instruct their 
pupils on the Lord's day. It aimed also to promote 
a more general acquaintance with these departments 
of biblical investigation. 

The most imperative demand of our times in Sun- 
day-school work is for a Normal Class in each Church 
to develop the teaching-power of the pastor, to elevate 
the standard of teaching in the Sunda3 T -school, and 
thus make our age an age of thorough, earnest Bible 
study. To this added the presence of the Holy 
Spirit, and then we shall see the Church of our age 

' : Strong with the strength of truth, 
Strong with the strength of youth, 
Armed as with Moses' rod, 
Armed with the Word of God." 



II. 

THE SEMINARY NORMAL CLASS. 



1. The colleges, seminaries, and academies of the 
country are now educating the young men and 
women who, ten years hence, are to occupy places of 



IM Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 

responsibility in the family, the Church, the school, 
and the State, and to these higher schools all the 
trades and professions look for workmen and leaders. 
To them also the Sunday-school comes with pleading 
and expectation. 

2. In our educational institutions students are not 
only acquiring a general culture, but a professional 
training. They select from the general curriculum, 
and pursue with avidity, the studies which especially 
prepare them for their contemplated trade or profes- 
sion, so that many of our seminaries have, practi- 
cally, several separate departments or courses of study 
— commercial, scientific, esthetic, normal, agricul- 
tural. So far as this custom interferes with the study 
of the rudiments of all knowledge, or prevents thor- 
oughness and breadth of culture, it is to be depre- 
cated. We now deal with it simply as an indication 
of the demand every-where felt for preparatory train- 
ing in order to succeed in any department of labor. 
And while the counting-room, the farm, the railroad, 
the laboratory of the chemist, and the public school 
are thus forcing into prescribed limits the courses of 
study pursued by pupils in our institutions of learning, 
the Sunday-school also raises her voice and asks that 
her urgent necessities may not be forgotten. 

3. The plea of the Sunday-school deserves a care- 
ful hearing. She does not crave a one-sided culture, 
nor ask that any other department of study be neg- 
lected in order to subserve her interests. She says: 
" Give me Sunday-school teachers. While you make 
engineers, chemists, artisans, merchants, agricultur- 
ists, lawyers, physicians, educators, make them all 
Bible teachers at the same time. Make them familiar 
with the Sunday-school as one of the higher depart- 



Sunday- School Normal Class. 135 

ments of the Church for the training of Christ's dis- 
ciples, old and young, in the mysteries of revelation, 
for the building up in them of Christian character, 
the conservation of social morality and of national 
integrity." This plea deserves a hearing because the 
higher schools owe much — more than they have ever 
yet repaid — to the Sunday-school. She has raised 
up scores of presidents and professors for these in- 
stitutions; thousands of their students have been 
brought, through her missionary exertions, from the 
paths of poverty and ignorance and directed to insti- 
tutions of which they had never heard, and for whose 
advantages they had never felt a longing, until new 
purposes were inspired by the Sunday-school ; and 
now that she seeks to increase her power, and elevate 
her standard, it seems but just that literary institu- 
tions should give her encouragement and aid. 

4. Already the plan proposed has met with a hearty 
response. In the "North-western Female College," 
Evanston, 111.; the "Cincinnati "Wesley an Female 
College ; " the "Baldwin University," in Ohio ; " Cor- 
nell College," Iowa ; " Dickinson College," Pennsyl- 
vania, and in other institutions of learning, regular 
Sunday-school Normal Classes have beeu organized. 
Several classes have been graduated in due form, 
receiving diplomas from the "Normal Deparment" 
at New York. 

5. The theological seminaries especially should give 
careful attention to this matter. What we make our 
ministers, our ministers will make the people. Those 
clergymen who look down with a sort of contempt 
upon Sunday-school work as beneath their notice 
will certainly weaken the Church, unless the Church 
be strong enough and wise enough to cast them off. 



136 Sunday- School Teacheks' Institute. 

Preaching is not " the all and do all " of a minister. 
He is called of God and appointed by the Church to 
teach as well as to preach. The best teaching is that 
which follows the catechetical method, and that was 
Christ's method and the method of the apostles, and 
it is the surest method to-day of edifying the Church. 
The Sunday-school is distinguished by this catechet- 
ical process of teaching. It supplements and cannot 
supplant the pulpit. It increases the power of the 
pulpit. It creates a strong demand for the right sort 
of pulpit work. JSTow we expect the theological 
seminaries so to train our ministers that they will 
appreciate the plan, purpose, and power of the school 
of the Church, and -prepare them to lay hold of it 
and increase its efficiency, and avail themselves of its 
marvelous possibilities. 

6. This important point of power has not been 
entirely overlooked. For years in the Biblical School 
at Evanston, 111., the Eev. D. P. Kidder, D.D., Pro- 
fessor of Pastoral Theology in that institution, has 
trained his classes in Sunday-school work. The ben- 
eficial results has been apparent in the graduates. 
While not one of them is known to be a Sunday- 
school specialist, all of them recognize the true posi- 
tion and great importance of this department. In 
1867 the author organized a normal class under the 
auspices of the New York Normal Department 
(S. S. Union M. E. Church) at the Theological Sem- 
inary, Concord, N. H., and several of the students 
completed the course of study. The same institution, 
since removed to Boston, Mass., provides for a semi- 
annual special course of lectures on Sunday-school 
work. The same is substantially true of the Theo- 
logical Seminary at Madison, 1ST. J. Before his death 



Sunday School Normal Class. 137 

our beloved fellow- worker, R. D. Pardee, Esq., 
delivered a course of Sunday-school lectures before 
the Union Theological Seminary in New York. 

7. The following plan of operations may serve as 
a suggestion, and lead to the adoption of other and 
wiser methods in all educational institutions : 

(1.) Let a Sunday-School Committee be appointed 
from the faculty, whose duty it shall be to superin- 
tend the Sunday-School Department, providing lect- 
ures, lessons, recitations, illustrative exercises, etc., 
for the proposed course of study. 

(2.) All persons may be enrolled as members of the 
class who shall pledge themselves to attend its exer- 
cises regularly, prepare all required lessons, read the 
books prescribed, and engage in Sunday-school teach- 
ing when called by the voice of the Church and their 
own convictions to that work. [For course of study 
see Chapter IV.] 

(3.) Any person having completed the prescribed 
course of reading and study shall be entitled to a 
Certificate or Diploma. 



III. 
THE NORMAL DEPARTMENT. 



1. Many persons who are quite willing to adopt 
normal methods are embarrassed by not knowing just 
how to begin, nor what lessons to employ. The pastor 
has no time to prepare a course of study. Were he 
to prepare it, the expense of printing would be con- 
siderable. The field is a broad one, and to arrange 



138 Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 

a system both comprehensive and specific is a task 
which requires an outlay of labor and time which few 
pastors can afford. To prepare a plan and to provide 
appliances for its prosecution, there should be an or- 
ganization or a " department " in some already exist- 
ing organization. In this way the whole circle of 
Sunday-schools in a land or denomination may be 
reached ; the normal system commended to them ; 
a definite object suggested ; a course of reading and 
study provided ; needful helps furnished at reasonable 
rates, and each school inspired to prosecute a course 
of study which is at the same time employed by many 
other schools. 

2. The Sunday-School Union of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church organized February 8, 1867, a 
" .Normal College," defining its objects to be as fol- 
lows: "To elevate the- standard of Sunday-school 
management and teaching in the Church, to furnish 
facilities for training teachers, and to unite all local 
Normal Classes and Institutesin a central organiza- 
tion." 

3. The name of the organization seeming somewhat 
pretentious, the Normal Committee, to whom its 
entire management w T as referred by the Board of 
Managers, decided to call it the " Normal Depart- 
ment" of the Sunday -School Union. The following 
general regulations were adopted by the Committee 
on the second anniversary of the organization, Feb- 
ruary 8, 1869 : 

(1.) Officers. — The officers of the Department shall 
consist of the Superintendent of Instruction, elected 
by the General Conference, who shall be ex officio 
Chairman, a Recording Secretary, and a Treasurer, 
who shall be elected annually by the Committee, from 



Sunday- School Normal Class. 130 

their own number, on the second Monday of February. 
The Secretary shall have charge of the archaeological 
collection and library of the Department, 

The Committee of Instruction in the several Church 
and Seminary Classes shall be enrolled as correspond- 
ing members of the Department, and an annual 
report shall be forwarded to each. 

(2.) Church Normal Classes and their Course 
of Study.— A Sunday -School Church Normal Class 
may be organized in any locality, or by any Meth- 
odist Episcopal Sunday-school, and will be recognized 
as an auxiliary of the Department on the following 
conditions : 

1.) That it adopts the prescribed course of study 

2.) That it elects a Committee of Instruction. 

3.) That it reports its organization and officers to 
the Recording Secretary of the Sunday-School Normal 
Department in New York. 

(3.) Classes. — There are three classes : 1.) The 
Preparatory ; 2.) The Second or Junior ; 3.) The 
Third or Senior. [The course of study will be found 
in the next chapter, page 142.] 

(4.) Conditions of Membership. — 1.) Any per- 
son promising to read carefully the books, and attend 
the ten meetings prescribed may be enrolled as a 
member of the preparatory class. 

2.) Any person having completed the Preparatory 
Course, and promising to read the books and attend 
the ten meetings prescribed, may be enrolled as a 
member of the second class. 

3.) Any person having completed the Preparatory 
and Second Courses, and promising to read the books 
and attend the fifteen meetings prescribed, may be 
enrolled as a member of the third class. 



140 Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 

5. Directions to the Committee of Instruction. 

Boards of Instruction in the Church Normal Class 
are recommended : 

(1.) To drill the class as frequently as possible in 
the subjects under examination, and introduce a 
juveuile class for illustrating the best methods of 
teaching. 

(2.) To use the blackboard whenever practicable 
for presenting outlines of the several lectures or other 
exercises of the class. 

(3.) To encourage members of the class to present 
written questions on all. subjects connected with their 
work, and especially on the topics under considera- 
tion. To these questions written answers may also 
be presented. 

6. Certificates and Diplomas. 

(1.) All persons who complete the first course may 
receive certificates from the Local Committee of 
Instruction. We shall provide blanks for this purpose. 

(2.) Certificates for the second course may also be 
given by the local committees. 

(3.) Persons completing the above course of study, 
and entering into the prescribed covenant, whose 
names are reported to the Recording Secretary at 
JSfew York, shall receive a diploma, signed by the 
officers of the Department and the Committee of 
Instruction in the class with which they are connected. 

Covenant. 

" I do solemnly promise to devote myself with all 
diligence to Sunday-school labor. I will endeavor to 
study the word of God thoroughly and prayerfully ; 
to spend more time in reading, meditation, and 



Sunday- School Normal Class. 141 

prayer, with special reference to my work ; as regu- 
larly as possible to attend all the means of grace; to 
visit my scholars as their temporal or spiritual neces- 
sities may require, and to be punctually present at 
school and all meetings of teachers." 

(4.) The following are specimens of the certificates 
and diploma provided by the Department. The 
diploma is an exquisitely beautiful specimen of litho- 
graphic art. 

Certificates for Preparatory and Junior Classes. 



NORMAL DEPARTMENT 

OF THIS 

METHODIST EPISCOPAL SUNDAY- SCHOOL UMOff. 



Has completed the course of READING, LECTURES, and 

STUDY prescribed for the Class of the Normal 

Department of the Methodist Episcopal Sunday-School 
Union. - ) Local 

Coin, of 
Instruc- 
tion. 



A. D. 1ST— _ 



Diploma for Senior Class. 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL SUNDAY-SCHOOL UMOfl. 
NORMAL DEPARTMENT. 



CljXS fatifi.es that has 

completed the course of BEADING, LECTURES, and STUDY 

prescribed for the * Class of the Normal 

Department of the Sunday-School Union of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church. 
■fr"^"^* <$> — <&> 

< L S > """ 



Superintendent. 
Committee. #>~^#> --A. D. 1ST 



* " Seminary, 11 or " Church Senior.'' 



142 Suxday- School Teachers' Institute. 

(5.) The '• Department " has also commenced a col- 
lection of maps, illustrations, photographs, curiosi- 
ties, etc., for the use of Sunday-schools connected 
with the Union. This collection, through the munif- 
icence of the late William \Y. Cornell, Esq., of New 
York, is already large and valuable. Arrangements 
have been made for loaning some of these articles to 
schools for lectures, evening reunions, etc. 

(6.) But after all that a " Department " of this char- 
acter can do, every thing depends upon the individual 
schools. The plans devised, the resources provided, 
one thing is required to perfect the work : The 
organization of the class, and the persevering prose- 
cution of the course of study to be laid down in the 
next chapter. 



IV. 

THE COURSE OF STUDY. 



1. A course of study has already been indicated in 
connection with Institute work, (see pages 59, 60.) 
For the use of permanent Normal Classes, it should be 
more comprehensive and complete. It is indeed the 
fact that the normal class work proper does not so 
much comprise the what as the how of teaching. If 
the Sunday-school and the family of to-day gave the 
instruction they should as to the contents of the 
Bible, the distinctive and only purpose of the Normal 
Class might be to prepare for teaching by practice 
in teaching. But as most of our pupils need first the 
knowledge and then the art of communicating it, we 



Sunday- School Normal Class. 143 

must teach them the art while communicating the 
knowledge. 

2. But even in the Normal Class the training, 
methods, and especially the range of reading and 
study adopted, must be unsatisfactory. The whole 
world of Bible knowledge, its amazing heights and 
unfathomable depths, appears before the student. If, 
however, we but impress him w T ith the vastness of the 
field before him, and the necessity of thought, prayer, 
and earnest effort in order to do any thing for his 
pupils — if we but cause him to resolve never to go be- 
fore a class without some faithful and devout study of 
his lesson — we shall be compensated for all our labor. 

3. The course of study for a Normal Class should 
be divided into easy stages. One will readily consent 
to attend a series of lectures, and to study two or 
three small tracts on the teacher's work, who would 
be discouraged at a long course of either lectures or 
readings. Hence we have divided the Normal 
Department course of study into two series of ten 
each, and one of fifteen meetings — twenty-five in all. 
We have found the device to succeed admirably. 

4. The complete course of study, whether in Church 
or Seminary class, should cover in some general way 
the following branches : 

(1.) The Bible as a Booh. — Its several parts; au- 
thorship ; original tongues ; manuscripts ; ancient 
and modern versions ; various readings ; classification 
of its books ; preservation ; modifications of form, 
mechanical, typographic, etc. 

(2.) The Evidence of the Divine Origin of the Bible. 
— Its claim to a divine origin ; proof of genuineness; 
canonicity ; the apocrypha; inspiration; miracles; 
prophecy; unity of the Bible; morality; harmony 

JO 



144 Sunday- School Teachers 1 Institute. 

with nature ; practical results ; character of Jesus as 
a proof of the divine origin of Christianity ; personal 
experience of the Bible religion. 

(3.) Theology. — Doctrines concerning God : the 
Trinity; the divinity of Christ; his work; the Holy 
Ghost; man in Eden ; man fallen; man redeemed; 
evil spirits ; angels ; things of the future. 

(4.) Bible History. — Chronology : the principal 
periods : 1.) Antediluvian ; 2.) Patriarchal ; 3.) 
Mosaic; 4.) Joshua and the Judges; 5.) Saul, David, 
and Solomon ; 6.) The two kingdoms ; 7.) The cap- 
tivities ; 8.) From Cyrus to Christ ; 9.) The days of 
our Lord on earth ; 10.) The Apostles ; the Gentile 
nations ; prominent characters of Bible times, etc. 

(5.) Bible Geography. — 1.) The lands of the begin- 
ning, Armenia, Chaldea, Mesopotamia; 2.) The 
land of Hebrew bondage, Egypt ; 3.) The land of 
Hebrew wandering, xARabia ; 4.) The land of promise, 
Canaan : its names, boundaries, mountains, plains, 
valleys, rivers, seas, cities, historic associations, pres- 
ent condition, etc. ; 5.) The land of the Jewish wars, 
Philistia, Syria, Arabia ; 6.) The lands of the cap- 
tivities, Assyria, Babylonia ; 7.) The lands of Cyrus 
the Emancipator, Media, Persia; 8.) The lands of 
the dispersion, see Acts ii ; 9.) Bible seas and rivers ; 
10.) Bible mountains, etc. 

(6.) Bible Manners and Customs. — 1.) Religions : 
pagan gods, theories, rites and ceremonies, etc., re- 
ferred to in the Bible ; Jewish worship : the taber- 
nacle, its priests, sacrifices, the feasts, the temple, etc. ; 
2.) Domestic : habitations, modes of architecture, 
furniture, social customs, feasts, weddings, funerals ; 
3.) Commercial and professional : trades, offices, arts, 
schools, agriculture, weights, measures, time, imple- 



Sunday- School Normal Class. 145 

ments, etc.; 4.) Governmental: laws, officers, taxa- 
tion, punishment, army, etc. 

(7.) Natural History. — 1.) Climate as described in 
the Bible : temperature, storms, seasons, etc. ; 2.) 
Animals ; 3.) Vegetation : trees, plants, flowers, etc. ; 
4.) Geology : stones, metals, gems, etc. 

(8.) How to Study the Bible. — Rules of interpreta- 
tion ; the canon of Scripture ; how to study Bible 
biography, history, doctrines, precepts, allegories, 
parables, etc. ; types and symbols, etc. ; difficulties in 
the Bible, and how to treat them. 

(9.) Church History.— -1.) The Church defined ; 
2.) The denominational Church ; 3.) The Church in 
the several centuries. 

(10.) The Sunday-School. — Its specific mission ; re- 
lation to the family ; to the sanctuary and pulpit ; 
modern; ancient; divine; schools of the prophets; 
synagogues ; schools in the temple ; errors concerning 
the Sunday-school ; defects in its working ; its de- 
mands ; organization ; management ; officers ; teach- 
ers ; grades of scholars ; course of study ; spiritual 
mission ; the infant class ; juvenile scholars, etc. 

(11.) Teaching* — What is education of the body ? 
What is education of the mind ? how secured ; what 
the mind was made to do ; mental habits : attention 
and observation, seeing truth clearly, remembering, 
forming mental images, inferring, seeing and enjoy- 
ing beauty, perceiving and doing duty, regulating the 
desires, regulating the affections, willing, expression ; 
rules for the teacher in the acquisition of knowledge : 
self-training, leading the child to think 5 to yield to 

* See Dr. Joseph Alden's new and valuable little Manual, prepared 
expressly for the Normal Department. Address, Sunday-School Union, 
805 Broadway, New York. 



146 Suxday- School Teachers' Institute. 

the claims of Christ, to live in harmony with the truth 
as it is in Christ, etc. 

5. In order to bring this comprehensive curriculum 
within the grasp of the majority of students, the " De- 
partment " has ordered the preparation of normal- 
class text-books, each to contain about thirty-two 
pages. They will be published under the general 
title of " The Outline Normal Series." The series 
will contain nine or ten volumes, as follows : " Out- 
lines on Teaching;"* on the " Sunday-School;" on 
" History of the Bible ;" on " Christian Evidences ;" 
on " Bible History ;" on " Bible Geography ;" on 
"Bible Manners and Customs;" on "Bible Study ;" 
on " Christian Theology ;" on " Church History." 
While these books are in process of preparation the 
course of study in use in the Normal Department is as 
follows : 

I. The Preparatory Class. 

1. All members of this class are expected to read 
attentively and studiously the following books : 
" Sunday-School Organization," " Helpful Hints," 
" The Art of Securing Attention." f 



* This volume, by Dr. Alden, is now ready. The same distinguished 
author is at work on the volume of il Christian Evidences." 

f The books referred to in this course may be had at the Method- 
ist Publishing House, 805 Broadway. X. Y.. at the following prices: 

Sunday-School Organization. Per dozen SO 72 

Helpful Hints for Sunday-School Teachers. Per dozen 72 

The Art of Securing Attention 10 

The Sunday-School and Bible Teaching 1 00 

The Sunday-School Hand-Booh 1 25 

Topics for Teachers. 2 vols. Per vol 1 50 

The Use of Illustration 15 

The Art of Questioning 10 

Rogers' 1 Domestic Life in Palestine 1 75 



Sunday- School Normal Class. 147 

2. To attend ten meetings of the class, at which, by 
lectures, essays, conversations, or class-exercises, the 
following subjects shall be carefully and thoroughly 
treated : 

(1.) The family, the pulpit, the social meetings of 
the Church and the Sunday-school ; their relations, 
and how they may be rendered mutually helpful. 

(2.) The organization and management of the Sun- 
day-school. 

(3.) Duties of Sunday -school teachers to the Church, 
the officers of the school, the parents of their scholars, 
and to the scholars themselves, in and out of school. 

(4.) How to win and retain the attention and in- 
terest of our scholars. 

(5.) Countries and nations mentioned in the Bible. 

(6.) Outlines of Bible History and Chronology. 

(7.) Outlines of Bible History and Chronology. 

(8.) Manners and Customs of Bible Times. 

(9.) Manners and Customs of Bible Times. 
(10.) Manners and Customs of Bible Times. 

3. It is expected that in the course of the ten meet- 
ings there will be conversations on the following 
subjects : " Memory, its use and abuse," " The proper 
improvement of time," k * Training our scholars in 
Christian experience and work." It is suggested that 
some member or members of the class be appointed 
to prepare written exercises on these subjects. 

4. The following works are recommended as con- 
taining much valuable information on the subjects 

Hand-Book of Bible Geography $2 25 

Word of God Opened 1 25 

Catechism of the M. E. Church, No. 3. Per dozen 96 

Stories from Church History 1 25 

[The books in italics are recommended, but not required.] 



148 Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 

above prescribed : " The Sunday-School and Bible 
Teaching," "The Sunday-School Hand-Book," "Top- 
ics for Teachers." 

II. The Second or Junior Class. 

1. All members of this class are expected to read 
studiously the following books, " The Use of Illustra- 
tion," " The Art of Questioning." 

2. To attend ten meetings of the class, at which, by 
lectures, essays, conversations, or class exercises, the 
following subjects shall be carefully treated : 

(1.) Teaching : analysis, illustration. 
(2.) Teaching : questioning, recapitulation, and ap- 
plication. 

(3.) Bible Geography and Natural History. 
(4.) Bible Geography and Modern History. 
(5.) The Bible. 
(6.) The Bible. 
(7.) The Bible. 
(8.) The Bible. 

(9.) The Present Condition of Bible Lands. 
(10.) The Present Condition of Bible Cities. 

3. It is expected in the course of the ten meetings 
there will be conversations on the following subjects: 
" Sunday-school literature," " Works of philanthropy 
and reform in Sunday-school," " The government of 
children." Let written exercises be prepared on 
these subjects. 

4. The following works are recommended to mem- 
bers of the class : " Rogers' Domestic Life in Pales- 
tine," " Whitney's Hand-Book of Bible Geography," 
Peirce's " Word of God Opened." 



Sunday- School Normal Class. 149 

iii. the third or senior class. 

1. All members of this class are expected to read 
studiously the following books: "Catechism of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, No. 3," * " Stories from 
Church History." 

2. To attend fifteen meetings of the class, at which, 
by lessons, essays, conversations, or class-exercises, 
the following subjects will be examined : 

(1.) Evidences of Christianity. 
(2.) Evidences of Christianity. 
(3.) Evidences of Christianity. 
(4.) Rites and Worship of the Jews. 
(5.) Rites and Worship of the Jews. 
(6.) Rites and Worship of the Jews. 
(7.) Christian Theology. 
(8.) Christian Theology. 
(9.) Christian Theology. 
(10.) Church History. 
(11.) Church History. 
(12.) Church History. 
(13.) Teaching. 

(14.) Jesus the Model Teacher. 
(15.) The Holy Ghost as Teacher. 
It is expected that during the fifteen meetings, 
essays or written exercises on the following subjects 
will be presented by one or more members of the class : 
" Unconscious Influence of the Teacher," " Picture 
and Object Teaching," " The Sunday-School Teach- 
er's Reward." 

* Where the Normal Course is used by other denominations this 
book may be omitted. 



150 Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 



Seminary Classes and their Course of Study. 

A Sunday-School Seminary Normal Class may be 
organized in any institution to learning, and will be 
recognized as an auxiliary of the Department on the 
same conditions as those prescribed for Church Normal 
Classes, substituting the following as the course of 
study : 

1. Each member of the class must pass a satisfac- 
tory examination upon the following works : 

(1.) Sunday-School Organization. 

(2.) Hopeful Hints for Sunday-School Teachers. 

(3.) The Art of Securing Attention. 

(4.) The Use of Illustration. 

(5.) The Art of Questioning. 

(6.) Eggleston's Manual. 

2. Each member of the class must prepare a writ- 
ten exercise on the following subjects : 

(1.) Training Scholars in Christian Experience and 
Work. 

(2.) Works of Philanthropy and Reform in Sunday- 
School. 

(3.) Unconscious Influence of the Teacher, 

(4.) The Sunday-School Teacher's Reward. 

3. There shall be lectures before the class on the 
following subjects : 

(1.) The Family, the Pulpit, the Social Meetings of 
the Church and the Sunday-School ; their relations, 
and how they may be rendered mutually helpful. 

(2.) Duties of Sunday-School Teachers to the 
Church, to the Officers of the School, to the Parents 
of their Scholars, and to the Scholars themselves in 
and out of School. 



Sunday -School Normal Class. 151 

(3.) How to Win and Ketain the Attention and In- 
terest our Scholars. 

(4.) Teaching : analysis, illustration, questioning, 
recapitulation, and application. 

(5, 6, 7.) Church History. 

(8.) Jesus the Model Teacher. 

(9.) The Holy Ghost as Teacher. 

4. There shall be at least ten practice lessons, or il- 
lustrations of actual teaching, in the course of ten 
meetings. 



THE PROGRAMME. 



1. A live teacher will soon determine by what plan 
he can best teach. He will then be true to himself, 
and discard all armor that might restrain him. He 
may see proper to modify the general outline of study 
already given, and project one of his own, which in 
his hands may be better than any other person could 
prepare for him. We believe in, and contend for, the 
largest freedom in this respect. Let all such inde- 
pendent arrangements of the lessons, however, recog- 
nize the general contents of the prescribed curriculum, 
so that there be no forfeiture of promotion or other 
privilege guaranteed by the Normal Department to 
the members of its classes. 

2. The following is a good general programme for 
a normal class. It is the result of a " Conversation " 
at the remarkably successful " Normal Institute " held 
in Plainfield, N. J., in January, 1872 : 



152 Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 

(1.) Boll-call. 

(2.) Devotional exercises. 

[These exercises should vary. Sometimes let the 
regular school lesson for the day be read or recited 
from memory responsively. Sometimes quote a 
promise, and support it by parallel passages. Some- 
times quote several texts on a specific subject. 
Always pray and sing. Let the prayer be a model 
of directness — a prayer, and not a report or nar- 
rative. 

(3.) Review of the last week's exercise. 

(4.) Sketches in writing of a Sunday-school lesson 
as the pupils would teach it. These to be taken 
home and critically examined by the teacher. 

(5.) Normal Exercise Proper, which should of 
course vary from time to time. Here are several 
proposed lessons, each one representing several ses- 
sions of the class : 

1.) Recitation from a text-book or catechism on 
" Sunday-schools," " Teaching," " Bible History," 
" Geography," etc., etc. This recitation and conver- 
sation to develop as fully as possible the teaching 
power of the pupils. 

2.) A Specimen Juvenile Lesson, in which the 
teacher of the Normal Class instructs a class of chil- 
dren. When they are dismissed the teacher examines 
the Normal Class upon his method, to see what they 
observed and thought concerning it and the principles 
he endeavored to illustrate. 

3.) A Practice Lesson, in which one of the pupils 
teaches a juvenile class, and is afterward subjected to 
the criticism of the other pupils and of the Normal- 
Class teacher. 

4.) A Lecture (followed by conversation) on princi- 



Sunday- School Normal Class. 153 

pies of teaching, Sunday-school order, lesson prep- 
aration, illustration, questioning, etc. 

5.) A Preparation Exercise, in which a given lesson 
is taken up, and the whole class engage in acquiring 
a knowledge of its contents, and in preparing it to 
teach others — to classes of different grades. 

(6.) Announcement of next week's lesson. 

(7.) Devotional service. [Silent prayer recom- 
mended.] 

Programmes for Ten Meetings. 

[Preparatory Class.*] 

Directions to the Conductors. — 1. Commence 
promptly. 2. Let the Scripture texts indicated 
below form a reading lesson, to be followed by sing- 
ing and prayer. 3. Drill the class thoroughly on 
the four Scripture Texts to be committed to mem- 
ory. 4. Take up the Ten Questions in order, read- 
ing or reciting the answers, and adding such sug- 
gestions on each question as may occur to the class. 
5. Let some one read the Note on Church and 
Sunday- School. The class may talk about its 
several propositions. 6. Four or five times review 
the Ten Questions to make the class familiar with 
them. 7. This drill may illustrate the best method 
of training a class. 8. Several of the members may 
be induced to serve as teachers, each taking one or 
two of the ten questions. 

* See pages 146, 147. 



154 Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 

Preparatory Class.] Topic : [First Session. 

The Family, the Pulpit, the Social Meetings and the 

School of the Church : their relations, and how they 

may be rendered mutually helpful. 



Scripture Texts. 

[to be committed to memory.] 
I. The Family. 



And these words, which I command 
thee this day, shall be in thine heart : 

And thou shalt teach them diligently 
unto thy children, and shalt talk of them 
when thou sittest in thine house, and 
when thou walkest by the way, and when 
thou liest down, and when thou risest j Deut. xi, 18-21. 
up.— Dect. vi, 6, 7. 



Texts. 

[to be bead in the class.] 



Deut. vi, 8, 9. 



Dent, iv, 9. 



II. The Pulpit. 

And he said unto them, Go ye into all 
the world, and preach the gospel to every 
creature. — Mabk xvi, 15. 



III. The Social Meetings. 

Then they that feared the Lord spake 
often one to another: and the Lord 
hearkened, and heard it, and a book of 
remembrance was written before him 
for them that feared the Lord, and that 
thought upon his name. — Mal. iii, 16. 



IV. The School. 

Let the word of Christ dwell in you 
richly in all wisdom; teaching and ad- 
monishing one another in psalms and 
hymns and spiritual songs, singing with 
grace in your hearts to the Lord. — Col. 
iii, 16. 



Prov. xxii, 6. 



Eph. vi, 4. 



2 Tim. i, 15. 



John xx, 21. Rom. x, 13-15. 
Isa. iii, 7, 8. 2 Cor. v, 17-21 



Heb. iii, 12, 13. Acts i, 13, 14. 



Eph. v, 18, 19. Matt, xviii, 19, 20. 



Deut. xxxi, 12, 13. John v, 39. 
Neh. viii. 5-8. 1 Cor. xii, 27-31. 

Luke il, 46. Eph. iv, 11-16. 



Sunday- School Normal Class. 



155 



TEN QUESTIONS. 



Questions, 

1. "What peculiar advantages as a 
Bchool of religion does the family pos- 
sess ? 



2. What is the mission of the pulpit? 



3. "What are some of the advantages of 
6ocial meetings for prayer, conversation, 
the narration of religious experience, 
etc.? 

4. How may the family aid in the work 
of the pulpit and of the social meetings 
of the Church ? 

5. How may the family aid the Sunday- 
school ? 



6. "What may the pulpit do for the 
family ? 

7. "What may the pulpit, do for the 
Sunday-school ? 



8. "What may the Sunday-school do for 



Suggestions. 

1. The first opportunity ; 2. The sus- 
ceptibility of childhood; 3. The love of 
the parents for the children ; 4. The 
love and confidence of the children ; 
5. 1 ; G. . 

1. To proclaim salvation; 2. To per- 
suade men to accept it. 3. To discuss 
Bible doctrines and enforce Bible duties. 

1. Mutual instruction ; 2. Mutual 
encouragement ; 3. Mutual affection ; 
4. Co-operation in Christian labor ; 
5. . 



1. By securing the regular and punc- 
tual attendance of father, mother, chil- 
dren, and servants. 2. By insisting upon 
the thorough preparation of every 
Sunday-school lesson at home during 
the week ; 3. By the faithful daily 
practical illustration of the religious 
truth taught in Sunday-school ; 4. By 
cultivating friendly social relations 
with the teachers of the school ; 

5. ; 6. ; 

7. ; etc., etc. 



1. Recognize it regularly in prayer 
and announcements ; 2. Preach and 
plead in behalf of the school ; 3. Dis- 
cuss the subjects taught in the school; 
4. ; 5. . 

1. Cultivate a true spirit of lave and 
obedience ; 2. Visit the sick and poor to 
minister aid and comfort ; 3. Send good 

books and papers ; 4. ; 

5. . 



156 Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 



Questions. 

9. What may the Sunday-school do for 
the pulpit ? 



10. "What may the Sunday-school do 
for the social meetings of the Church ? 



Suggestions. 

1. Crowd tlie clturch to hear preaching ; 

2. Inspire the preacher and aid the serv- 
ice by hearty congregational singing ; 

3. Adapt and apply the teachings of 
the pulpit to the individual scholars; 
4. . 

1. Always recognize these meetings as 
parts of the Church service and work; 
2. Urge teachers and scholars to attend. 



Note on Church and Sunday- School. 

1. These ten questions are designed to impress the 
members of the class with the fact that the Sunday- 
school is not the only, nor the most important part of 
the Church. 

2. It is one of the departments of Christian thought 
and effort in the Church of Christ, where old and 
young assemble to study the Holy Scriptures that 
they may be wise unto salvation. 

3. It is not a substitute for the family. 

4. It is not a substitute for the pulpit. 

5. It is not a substitute for the social meetings of 
the Church. 

6. There should be no collision between it and the 
other departments. 

7. Each needs the sympathy and aid and inspira- 
tion of all the rest. 

8. The Sunday-school is not an independency. It 
is not a Church by itself. Let the Normal Class be 
trained in this fundamental principle at the very 
beginning of their course. 



Sunday- School Normal Class. 



157 



Preparatory Class.] Topic 



[Second Session. 



The Organization and Management of the 
Sunday- School. 

1. Brief Addresses or papers on the following 
topics : " The value of system in Church matters."" 
"The relation of the Sunday-school to the annual 
and quarterly conferences of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church." 

2. Readings. — Let some one read the Sunday- 
school Constitution recommended by the General 
Conference, and published in the Appendix to the 
Discipline. 



Questions. 



Suggestions. 



1. What officers are required in a well- 
ordered school ? 



2. What committees are required 



3. What are the principal difficulties in 
the way of making the order of exercises 
in Sunday-school harmonious, agreeable, 
and profitable ? 



4. What is a good general order of ex- 
ercises for a Sunday-school ? 



1. Pastor; 2. Superintendent; 
4. Secretary; 5. Treasurer; 6. 
7. Chorister ; 8. . 



1. Missionary ; 2. Visitation ; 3. 
4. Normal. 



1. Want of a plan; 2. Or the plan not 
understood by all; 8. Want of punctual- 
ity; 4. Failure to begin with perfect si- 
lence; 5. Want of ability on the part of 
superintendent to bring the school to 
perfect order ; 6. Overvaluing system and 
drill. Forget to be natural and simple; 

7. ; 8. Carelessness on part 

of teachers; 9. Too much speech-making 
bystrangers; 10. Interruption by officers 
of the school during devotional exercises? 
11. Interruption by visitors ; 12. ■ — . 



I. Preparatory : 

1. Teacher's prayer-meeting ; 2. Ex- 
change, library books; 3. Arrange room; 
4. School in place; 5. Preparatory singing. 



158 Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 



Questions, 



5. What are the duties of a Sunday- 
school superintendent during the school 



1011S. 

II. INTRODUCTORY : 

1. Teachers' and scholars' 1 roll-call; 

2. Silence; 3. The Word of God ; 4. Sing 
ing and prayer. 

III. Instruction : 

1. Silence; 2. Preli'i inary remarks by 
superintendent; 3. Preliminary prayer; 
4. Class siudy; 5. General reYiew. (?) 

IV. Closi>(j: 

1. Silence ; 2. Eemarks, (rare and brief;) 

3. Announcements; 4. Distiibution of 
books and papers ; 5. General review ; (?) 
6. Teachers' prayer-meeting, ten minutes. 

1. To conduct the general extrcises; 
2. To supply classes with teachers; 3. To 
watch from the superintendent's desk 
how all are engaged ; 4. . 



[Members of the class should be encouraged to 
take notes as the conversation goes on, or as written 
answers are read.] 

4. Reviews. (1.) In a series of propositions state 
the result of the evening's work. 

(2.) Recall the exercises of the previous meeting. 

5. Suggestions may be found in Inglis on " The 
Sunday-School and Bible Teaching," House's " Sun- 
day-School Hand- Book," and Dr. Wise's " Sunday- 
School Organization." 

Preparatory Class.] Topic '. [Third Session. 

Duties of Sunday- School Teachers to the 
Church, the Officers of the School, the Par- 
ents of their Scholars, and to the Scholars 
Themselves in and out of School. 

1. Brief Addresses or papers on the following 
topics : " The duties of the teacher to the officers of 
the Church," " The duties of the teacher in regard 



Sunday- School Xormal Class. 159 

to the public and social meetings of the Church," 
"What the officers of the school have a right to ask 
from the teachers by way of assistance and encour- 
agement." 

2. Questions to be answered in writing : " What 
are the duties of the teacher to the parents of the 
scholars?" " What are the duties of the teacher to 
the scholars in school ? " " What are his duties to 
them out of school I " 

3. Experience of teachers may be given orally or 
in writing in reference. to any of these points. 

4. Review of the duties thus elicited. 

Preparatory Class.] Topic I [Fourth Session, 

How to win and retain the Attention and In- 
terest of our Scholars. 

1. Essays on " The peculiarities of childhood 
which render this task difficult," and " The circum- 
stances which render this especially difficult in 
Sabbath-school." 

2. Questions to be answered in writing : " Why 
is it not proper to commence a recitation until the 
attention of the entire class is secured ? " " Is it 
proper to arrest attention by questions or incidents 
not connected with the lesson ? " 

3. Experience of teachers elicited in answer to 
the questions : " Do you have the attention of your 
scholars ? " " How do you secure it ? " [See page 26.] 

4. A Specimen Lesson taught by the conductor or 
other person. 

5. Review and Address by the conductor of the 
class or other person. 

11 



160 Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 

Preparatory Class.] Topic I [Fifth Session. 

Countries and Nations Mentioned in the Bible. 

1. Use in the class a blackboard and "Our ~New 
Sunday-School Map, No. 1, The Scripture World."* 

2. Determine the distance, in English miles, from 
Ecbatana, in Medea, to Carthage, in Africa, and from 
Thebes, in Egypt, to the northern coast of the Black 
Sea. 

3. Compare this area with an equal area in the 
United States, to show the class, by a region with 
which they are familiar, the size of the Bible world. 

4. As each of the following countries is named let 
the accompanying Scripture be read, and let the class 
say whether the Gountry is in Europe, Asia, or 
Africa : 



Arabia, 


Assyria, 




Ethiopia, 


Gal. i, IT; iv. 25. 


Isa. x, 12. 




Actsviii, 27. 


Macedonia, 


Phenicia, 




Ohaldea, 


Acts xx, 1 . 


Acts xxi, 1, 2. 




Jer. xxv, 12. 


Greece, 


Medea, 




Philistia, 


Acts xx. 2. 


Ezra vi. 2. 




Psa. oviii. 9. 


Armenia, 


Canaan, 




India, 


2 Kings xix, 35-37. 


Gen. xii, 5. 




Esther i, 1. 


Mesopotamia, 


Spain, 




Egypt, 


Gen. xxiv, 10. 


Rom. xv, 24. 




Gen. xii, 10. 


Italy, 


Persia, 




Asia, 


Acts xxvii, 1. 


Ezek. xxxviii, 


5. 


Acts xvi, 6. 


Elam, 


Libya, 




Syria, 


Isa. xi, 10, 11. 


Acts ii, 10. 




Gal. i. 21. 


5. Again, divide 


the Bible world 


into four dis- 


icts, and as each of the above 


conn 


tries is named 



let the class say to which of the districts it belougs : 

* On muslin, size 3x4 feet. Price, $5. Address, Methodist Pub- 
lishing House, 805 Broadway, New York. 



Sunday- School Normal Class. 161 

First District — North and east of the Euphrates. 
Second District — Between the Euphrates and 
the Mediterranean. 

Third District — South of the Mediterranean. 
Fourth District— North of the Mediterranean. 

6. These u countries " have been the scene of many 
wonderful events. Great nations have there appeared, 
and they have passed away. God has wrought out 
through their several histories one great history, that 
of redemption. Among the great nations of the 
Bible are : 

From Shem, Hebrews, Gen. xiv, 13; Persians, Ezra i, 1 ; Assyr- 
ians, 2 Kings xix, 35. 

From Ham, Ethiopians, Jer. xiii, 23; Egyptians, Exod. xi, 3; 
Canaanites, Gen. x, 15-18. 

From Japhet, Medes, Isa. xiii, 17; Grecians, Joel iii, 6; Ro- 
mans, Acts xvi, 21. 

7. The conductor of the class may review the ex- 
ercise on the map. 

8. As the following names of persons are given let 
the class state the country or countries of his birth, 
principal actions and death : 



Cyrus, 


Sennacherib, 


Belshazzar, David, 


Job, 


Timotheus, 


Abram, Noah, 


Moses, 


• Goliath, 


Pharaoh-Necho. 



Preparatory Class.] Topic : [Sixth Meeting. 

Outlines of Bible History and Chronology. 

[The Bible does not furnish us with a complete 
chronological system. Calculations made by different 
chronologists lead to different conclusions. The He- 
brew, Samaritan, and Septuagint versions differ from 



162 Suxday- School Teachers' Iktstitctb. 

each other. Josephus agrees nearly with the Septua- 
gint. These differences, however, are not great. 
The truth of Scripture is not affected by them. 
Further critical research may remove every difficulty. 
We shall follow substantially in our outlines the 
chronology of Usher — that emploved in the English 
Bible.] 

1. Place on the blackboard, and fix in the minds 
of the class, fourteen principal events of Bible 
history. 

1. Creation, 8. Division of Kingdom, 

2. Deluge, 9. Captivity of Judah, 

3. Abramborn, 10. Restoration, 

4. Moses born, 11. Birth of Jesus. 

5. Exodus, 12. Crucifixion, 

6. Saul chosen, 13. Paul martyred, 

7. Temple dedicated, 14. John's Gospel written. 

2. After having drilled the class in this outline, 
place on the board, opposite each name, the date of 
the event, as follows : 

1. Creation, 4004 B. C. 2. Deluge, 2348 B. C. 3. Abram bora, 
1996 B. C. Moses born. 1571 B. C. 5. The exodus of the Israelites, 
1491 B. C. 6. Saul chosen king. 1095 B. C. Solomon's Temple ded- 
icated, 1005 B. C. 8. The kingdom divided, forming the two king- 
doms of Judah and Israel, 975 B. C. 9. Captivity of Judah, 606 B. C. 
10. Restoration under Cyrus, 536 B. C. 1 1. Birth of Jesus, 4 or 6 B. C. 
12. Crucifixion, 29 or 33 A. D. 13. Paul a martyr at Rome, 66 A. D. 
14. St. John wrote his G-ospel, 101 A. D. 

3. Erasing every thing from the board, place upon 
it the dates alone, and let the class give the event 
which transpired at each date. 

4. From the above outlines find answers to the fol- 
lowing questions : 

(1.) How long after the creation, and how long before the birth of 
Christ, did the deluge occur ? (2.) How long after the deluge was 



Sunday- School Normal Class. 1G3 

Abram born? And Moses? (3.) How old was Moses at the time of 
the exodus ? (4.) How long after the exodus did Moses die ? [Forty 
years.] (5.) How long after Moses' death was Saul chosen king? 
(6.) How long from the choice of Saul to the division of the kingdom ? 
(7.) How long from the division of the kingdom to the captivity of 
Judah ? (8.) How long was Judah in captivity ? (9.) How long from 
the restoration of Judah to the birth of Jesus ? (10.) How old was 
Jesus at the time of his crucifixion ? (11.) How long from the cruci- 
fixion of Christ to the martyrdom of Paul ? (12.) How long from the 
martyrdom of Paul to the writing of John's G-ospel? (13.) How long 
from the exodus to the crucifixion ? (14.) How long from the creation 
to the writing of John's G-ospel? 

5. The class should be drilled thoroughly on the 
above fourteen events, fourteen dates, and fourteen 
questions. 

Preparatory Class.~] Topic: [Seventh Meeting. 

Outlines of Bible History. 

I. Carefully review the fourteen events, fourteen 
dates, and fourteen questions of the sixth meeting. 
[See March number of the Journal.] 

II. Study the following outline of Bible history, 
and examine the Scripture passages. 

1. Creation, 4004 B. C. Gen. ii, 1. 

2. Enoch translated, 3017 B. C. Gen. v, 24. 

3. Deluge, 2348 B. C. Gen. vii, 24. 

4. Confusion of tongues, 2234 B. C. Gen. xi, 8, 9. 

5. Abram born, 1996 B. C. Geu. xi, 27. 

6. Joseph sold into Egypt, 1728 B. C. Gen. xxxvii, 28. 

7. Moses born, 1571 B. C. Exod. ii, 10. 

8. Moses flees to Midian, 1531 B. C. Exod. ii, 15. 

9. Exodus of Israel, 1491 B. C. Exod. xii, 51. 

10. Entrance into Canaan, 1451 B. C. Josh, iv, 10, 11. 

11. Joshua died, 1443 B. C. Josh, xxiv, 29. 

12. Saul chosen king, 1095 B. C. 1 Sam. ix. 17. 

13. David made king, 1055 B. C. 2 Sam. ii, 4. 

14. Solomon made king, 1015 B. C. 1 Kings ii, 12. 



164 Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 

15. Temple dedicated, 1005 B. C. 1 Kings viii, 12, 13. 

16. Division into two kingdoms, 915 B. C. 1 Kings xii, 19, 21. 

17. Captivity of Israel, 721 B. C. 2 Kings xvii, 6. 

18. Captivity of Judah, 606 B. C. 2 Kings xxiv, 10-12. 

19. Restoration under Cyrus, 536 B. C. Ezra i, 1-4. 

20. Sacond temple begun, 535 B. C. Ezra iii, 8. 

21. Ezra governor, 467 B. C. Ezra vii. 21. 

22. Nehemiah governor, 446 B. C. Neh. ii, 17, 18. 

23. Birth of Jesus, 4 or 6 B. C. Luke ii, 10, 11. 

24. Crucifixion, 29 or 33 A. D. Matt, xxvii, 35. 

25. Saul of Tarsus converted, 34 A. D. Acts ix, 6, 17, 18. 

26. Paul martyred, 66 A. D. 

27. Titus destroyed Jerusalem, 70 A. D. 

28. John's Gospel written, 97 or 101 A. D. 

[The blackboard may be used in this lesson. A 
general outline of Bible history is all that can be 
studied in these brief exercises.] 

Preparatory Class.'] Topic : [Eighth meeting. 

Manners and Customs of Bible Times. 

[It is desirable in this exercise to have pictorial il- 
lustrations. Our set of diagrams on Eastern Habita- 
tions, or Randolph's Object-Lesson pictures, will be of 
service. But why not let some one make rough 
sketches on the blackboard, or on paper, to illustrate 
the several facts ?] * 

Examine the Scripture passages indicated, and ask, 
What clo we under stand by this? How does it re- 
semble or differ from our present modes f 

* The exercises of the Xormal Class require a competent, active 
leader. He should examine the Scripture passages at home to see 
that there is no typographical blunder in the list. He should give 
each member of the class a slip of paper with three, five, or more 
passages indicated on it. When a topic is under consideration, and 
a passage of Scripture announced, let the person holding it state the 
fact contained in it. and then read the verse. 



Sunday- School Normal Class. 1G5 

1. Booths. Gen. xxxiii, IT; Job xxvii, 18; Isa. i, 8; Lev. xxiii, 
42, 43; Neb. viii, 16; Jonah iv, 5. 

2. Huts. Job xxiv, 16; Ezek. xii, 5; xiii, 10, 11; Matt, vi, 19; 
vii, 26, 27. 

3. Better houses. 1 Chron. xxix, 2; Amos v, 11; Gen. xi, 3; 
1 Kings vi, 15, 16, 32-35; vii. 8-12 ; x, 11-12; xxii, 39; Isa. ix, 10; 
Amos iii, 15. 

4. Windows. Joshua ii, 15; Judges v, 28; 2 Kings iv, 10; ix, 
30-36; 1 Sam. xix, 12; Acts ix, 25. 

5. Doors. John xviii, 16, 17 ; Deut. iii, 5 ; Judges xvi, 3 ; Isa. xlv, 
2 ; Deut. vi, 9. 

6. Interior of house. Acts xii, 13, 14; Judges iii, 23; 2 Chron. 
xxix, 7, 17 ; 2 Sam. xvii, 18; Luke v, 19; Esther i, 5; Luke xx, 11. 

7. Roofs. Joshua xi, 6: 1 Sam. ix. 25. 26; 2 Sam. xi, 2; Prov. 
xxi, 9; Neli. viii. 16; 2 Sam. xvi, 22; Isn. xv, 3; xxii, 1; Jer. xlviii, 
38 ; 2 Kings xxiii, 12 ; Jer. xix, 13 ; Acts x, 9 ; Deut. xxii, 18 ; Mark 
ii, 4; Luke v, 19. 

8. Tents. Gen. iv, 20; Exod. xxvi. 14; xxxv, 26; xxxvi, 14; 
Acts xviii, 3 ; Sol. Song i, 5; Gen. xxiv, 67 ; Jer. xliii, 10; Acts vii, 
4, 5; Heb. xi, 8-10. 

9. Oaves. Gen. xix, 30; xxv, 9, 10; Joshua x, 16; 1 Sam. xiii, 6; 
Num. xxiv, 21; Sol. Song ii, 14; Jer. xliv, 16; Judges vi, 2; Isa. 
xxxiv, 13-15. 

[The conductor may write these passages on sepa- 
rate slips of paper and distribute them through the 
class. This arrangement will save time.] 



Preparatory Class.] Topic : [Ninth Meeting. 

Manners and Customs of Bible Times. 

[In this exercise the set of diagrams entitled 
" Domestic Arrangements of the Orientals" may be 
used, or, as suggested last month, rough sketches may 
be made by home artists.'] 

Examine the Scripture indicated and ask, What do 
ive understand by this f How does it resemble or dif- 
fer from our 'present modes? 



166 Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 

1. Seats and postures. 1 Ohron. xvii, 16: 1 Kings xviii, 42; 

1 Sam. i, 9; 1 Kings ii, 19 ; Matt, xxi, 12; 1 Kings x r 19. [Diagrams 
132, 133, and 134 of the Workingmen's Educational Union in our 
Collection' represent Oriental postures, and Assyrian and Egyptian 
thrones, sofas, pleasure chair, stools, etc.] 

2. Tables, eating, etc. [Diagrams 135, 136, 137.] Mark vii, 3; 

2 Kings iii, 11 ; Gen. xviii, 8; John iv, 9; Matt, ix, 11; Acts xi, 3 ; 
Gen. xliii, 34; Amos vi, 4-7; Esther i, 5-7; John xii, 3; xiii, 25; 
Ruth ii, 14; Matt, xxvi, 23; John xiii, 26: Gen. xviii, 6. I 

3. Beds. [Diagram 138] Gen. xxviii, 11; Exod. xxii, 26, 27; 
Mark ii, 9; John v, 10; Deut. hi, 11; Psa. cxxi, 6: Job xxix, 3. 
[See diagram 138. No. 3.] 

4. Grinding corn. Exod. xi. 5; Judges xvi, 21 ; Matt, xxiv, 41. 
[Diagram 139.] Eccl. xii T 4. 

5. Lamps and oven. [Diagram 140.] John xviii, 3 ; 1 Sam. iii, 
3; Judges vii, 16-20 ; Matt, xxv, 1, 3, 4, 7 ; Lam. v, 10 ; Mai. iv, 1 ; 
Matt, vi, 30 ; Luke xii, 28. 

6. Water and wine skins. Joshua ix, 4-13; Matt, ix, 17; Job 
xxxii, 19; Psa. cxix, 83; Psa. lvi, 8; Judges iv, 19. 

7. Articles and customs of dress. Gen. iii, 21; Prov. xxxi, 13, 
22; Luke xvi, 19; Judges viii, 26; Gen. xxxvii, 3, 4; Psa. xlv, 13, 
14; Deut. xxiv, 13; Ruth iii. 15; Exod. xii, 34; Luke vi, 29; John 
xix, 23; Gen. xxvii, 15; Luke xv, 22; Matt, xxi, 8; Job xvi, 15 ; 
Joel i, 8; Num. xv, 38; Matt, ix, 20; Matt, xxiii, 5; Prov. xxxi, 24; 
Isa. v, 27 ; 1 Pet. i, 13; [for a description of the finery of the Jewish 
women see Isa. iii, 18-23;] Isa. iii, 21; 1 Cor. xi, 15; 1 Pet. iii, 3; 

1 Tim. ii, 9 ; Psa. lxxv, 5 ; 2 Kings ix, 30 ; 1 Cor. xi, 14, 15 ; 2 Sam. 
xiv, 25, 26; xviii, 9; Job i. 20; Ezra ix, 3 ; Exod. iii, 5; Josh, v, 15; 

2 Sam. i. 10; Esther iii, 10; Dan. vi, 17; Isa. iii, 18; Gen. xxxvii, 
29, 34; Job i, 20 ; Matt, xxvi, 65; Acts xiv, 14 ; Gen. xlv, 22; 
Psa. xlv, 8. 

Preparatory Class. ~] Topic I [Tenth Meeting. 

Manners and Customs of Bible Times. 

[Examine the Scripture passages indicated. Ask, 
What do we understand by this f How does it resem- 
ble or differ from our present modes?] 

1. Traveling. In companies. Luke ii, 42-44. Inns. Gen. xliii, 
21; Luke ii, 7. Courtesies. Gen. xviii, 1-8; Heb. xiii, 2; Matt. 
xxv. 35 ; 1 Peter iv, 9. Mode of travel. 2 Kings iv, 22-25 ; Acta 



Sunday- School Nokmal Class. 1G7 

viii, 28 ; xxi, 15 ; [What does " carriage " in this verse mean ?] Gen. 
xxiv, 61-64. 

2. Visiting. Gen. xviii, 4; xix, 2; xxiv, 32; Luke vii, 44; John 
xiii, 4, 5. 

3. Agriculture, etc. Gen. iv, 2; xiv, 14; xxi, 25; xxvi, 15; 
Exod. iii, 1, 2 ; 1 Sam. xi, 5; Psa. xxiii ; John x, 3, 4; Gen. xxiv, 
20; xxix, 9; Josh, iii, 15; 1 Chron. xii, 15; Eccl. xi, 1; Isa. xxxii, 
20; 2 Chron. xxvi, 10; Deut. xi, 10 ; xxii, 9; Job xxxix, 10; 1 Sam. 
viii, 12; xiv, 14; Amos vi, 12; 1 Kings xix, 19; Judges iii, 31; 
Exod. ix, 31, 32 ; Isa. xxviii, 24-29; Joel iii, 13 ; Kutli ii, 15 ; Judges 
xv, 5; Psa. cxxvi, 6; Lev. xxiii, 22; Isa. xxviii, 28; Hosea x, 11; 
Judges vi, 11 ; Gen. 1. 10 ; Matt, iii, 1 1, 12 ; Psa. cxliv, 13 ; Joel i, 17 ; 
Luke xii, 18; 1 Chron. xxvii, 25; Jer. xli, 8; Matt, xxi, 33; Isa. v, 
2 ; Psa. lxxx, 9 ; 2 Kings xxv, 12; Isa. i. 8 ; Jer. vi, 9 ; Neb. xiii. 15 ; 
v, 11 ; 1 Sam. viii, 14. 

4. Commerce, Manufactures, etc. Isa. xliv, 12; liv, 16; xli, 
7; Matt, xiii, 55; 1 Chron. iv, 21 ; Jer. xviii, 2; Job vii, 6 ; 2 Chron. 
ii, 7, 13; Neb. xiii, 16; 1 Sam. xxi, 3; Acts ix, 43; xix, 24; 2 Tim. 
iv, 14; Acts xviii, 3 ; xvi, 14 ; Matt, iv, 21 ; Gen. xxxvii, 28 ; 1 Kings 
xxii, 48; ix, 26; x, 21, 22, 28, 29; 2 Chron. viii, 17, 18; Gen. xxiii, 
16; Matt, xx, 9; ix, 9: Mark ii, 14; Matt, xiii, 45, 46; xxv, 16, 17; 
Jonah i, 5; Acts xxvii, 12, 16, 17, 20, 40; xxviii, 11. 

5. Weddings. Let one of the class read from Manners and Cus- 
toms of the Jews the account of mnrriages, pages 126-131. 

6. Funerals. Read from the same book the account of funerals, 
pages 134-141. 



VI. 

THE NORMAL CLASS TEACHER. 



1. The position of Normal Class teachers is weighty 
with responsibility. It may affect for the time being 
comparatively few persons, but these persons are 
to wield a wide and ever-widening influence. They 
are to instruct childhood and manhood. In the 
course of twenty years of Sunday-school teaching 



1GS Sunday-School Teachers' Institute. 

probably not less than one hundred persons will 
receive the impress of each one of these normal 
pupils. Like master like scholar. By voice and gait 
and style of utterance, and above ail by the prevail- 
ing spirit of his life, will the teacher perpetually 
affect the character of his pupils. How important 
that he feel the sacred ness of his place and work ! 

2. He needs primarily an intense devotion to 
Christ. The polish of the scholar, the tact of the 
teacher, will never serve as a substitute for the faith, 
love, and zeal of personal religious life. Therefore the 
first step for him to take is toward the cross, where 
he may bow reverently before the Lord and seek the 
light and power of the Holy Spirit. 

3. The teacher of this class must be a teachable 
man. One man cannot know every thing about any 
one work. Be he ever so well versed in it, he may 
almost any day find some passer-by, or some well- 
known neighbor, who is able to offer a suggestion to 
him which, kindly received and candidly tested, may 
serve him a good purpose. So, too, the magazines and 
papers and books which so abound in the department 
of Sunday-school effort may give him a great many 
helpful hints, even though he be himself a guide and 
a standard to many. 

4. The intelligence and enthusiasm with which the 
secular educators of the day prosecute their favorite 
calling, render it profitable for ministers and other 
teachers of religion to read the literature and witness 
the work of this large class of professional people. 
Our Xormal Class teacher should attend public school 
institutes, visit secular and especially normal schools, 
and by canvassing the true method of education see 
how he may employ them, and aid his pupils in em- 



Sunday- School Normal Class. 1G0 

ploying them, for God's glory in the nobler and 
broader work of culture to which he is called. 

5. The Normal Class teacher should feel that his 
work tills his whole life. It is his profession, and is 
not less so on a week-day than on the Sabbath. The 
week is full of its thought and planning and prayer. 
His business habits are modified by it. He remem- 
bers his class every day, and welcomes them as 
friends whom he is glad to reach with his loving pur- 
pose even in mid-week. The steady under-current of 
his life is in the direction of Sabbath duties and Bible 
teaching. In all this unity and constancy of aim 
there is immense educating influence. His mental 
force involuntarily and habitually tends toward his 
one work, and thus is itself intensified, while it tends 
to render the work less laborious and more of a 
success and a delight. Such perpetual purpose and 
passion in a man's life are worth more, in an intel- 
lectual way even, than a score of aimless years spent 
in the very midst of literary opportunities. Such 
professional intensity we strongly commend to our 
Normal Class instructor. 

6. We have said little on the subject of teaching 
in this treatise. It has not fallen in our way to do so. 
We now, however, bring our little volume to a close 
by reminding the teacher that to make true teachers 
of his pupils he must understand precisely what 
teaching is, and must train his scholars by his own 
theory, example, and habit. Teaching is a quicken- 
ing operation. It is not giving to other minds the 
knowledge they lack, but rather setting them at 
work to desire, demand, and themselves appropriate 
knowledge. It seems not knowledge so much as 
strength. It gives a man as its best result not merely 



170 Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 

strength that comes from knowing, but the strength 
of knowing how to know. So train your pupils that 
the j may -be quicken ers of others, and thus cause 
minds consecrated to God to grow and attain wisdom 
and wield influence for all time and through all 
eternity ! 



APPENDIX. 



1. The Rev. D. P. Kidder, D.D., (Professor in Drew Theological 
Seminary,) in 1847, then the Corresponding Secretary of the Suuday- 
School Union of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in his annual report, 
made the following plea in behalf of 

NORMAL SUNDAY-SCHOOLS. 

In addition to the means hitherto employed to advance this cause, 
we think it time to ask whether a system of Normal Sabbath-school 
instruction may not be established. Schools thus designated have 
been founded by several States of this Republic, for the express pur- 
pose of training and qualifying teachers for common schools. 

Besides the regular institutions founded and supported by the States, 
voluntary organizations, called " Teachers' Institutes," have been 
formed, with a kindred object, in many of the counties, especially of 
the State of New York. At these Institutes, which are only of brief 
duration, the time is devoted to mutual improvement by means of 
lectures, reviews, examinations in different branches of study, and 
explanations of different modes of teaching and governing. Such, 
meetings of teachers, if judiciously conducted, can hardly fail to be 
profitable ; and they give occasion to ask why Sunday-school teachers 
may not have similar means of improvement? Perhaps a basis for 
them is already established in our district Sunday-school conventions, 
and in the courses of lectures often delivered to Sunday-school teachers. 

Why may not these be rendered more practical, and consequently 
more interesting? Even if all the teachers of a district could not meet 
during a sufficient length of time to take a complete series of lessons 
on the best methods of Sunday-school instruction, those who could, if 
representatives of the different schools, might return and impart the 
knowledge they had received to their several associates. In cities, 
if the spirit of the enterprise sufficiently prevailed, Normal classes of 
Sunday-school teachers might be organized whenever the services of a 
competent person could be secured to conduct them. Who can tell 



172 Sunday-School Teachers' Institute. 

what an amount of good might be accomplished were some dozens of 
our most successful and competent laborers in our Sunday-schools to 
devote a portion of their time, annually, to training teachers on the plan 
now suggested? Could they succeed, by such means, in elevating the 
general character of Sunday-school instruction; could they give a new 
impetus to one of the greatest benevolent movements of the age; could 
they, by moving upon the minds of some hundreds of teachers, influence 
the hearts and character of thousands of children, would they regret 
any sacrifices necessary to accomplish such glorious ends ? 

The following year he again referred to the subject as follows: 
The proposal of normal instruction for Sunday-school teachers was 
suggested iu our last report. We confess, however, that we fear the 
day is distant when the Church will take as high ground on this sub- 
ject as that assumed by several States of the Union, namely, that iu 
order to promote general education most effectually, institutions must 
be provided for the special instruction of teachers. 

THE LONDON SUNDAY-SCHOOL UNION NORMAL CLASS. 

In 1859 the Committee of the Sunday-School Union commenced a 
'• Normal Class for the Training and Preparation of Sunday-School 
Teachers," in which a course of training in the theory and praciice of 
teaching should be combined with special preparation of Sunday- 
school lessons, so as to embrace in one class the objects which have 
hitherto been attained by two distinct organizations. 

A circular was accordingly prepared, and sent to the officers and 
teachers of the London schools, accompanied by the following 

PROGRAMME. 

Sept. 21. Preliminary Meeting — Tea at half past six o'clock. 
Charge, sixpence each. At half past seven o'clock, two addresses: 
1. "Preparation: its Place, Power, and Use." Mr. Watson. 2. "The 
Art of Teaching: its Necessity and Application to the work of the 
Sunday-School." Mr. Hartley. 

Sept. 28. Lecture — -'Pre-recpii sites for Successful Teaching." Mr. 
Hassell. 

Oct. 5. Preparation Class — Information on Geography, History, 
etc., contributed by Members of the Class. Sketch of lesson at close, 
fifteen minutes. Subject: '-Manasseh's Crime and Repentance." 
2 Kings xxi, 1-1 6. Conducted by Rev. J. F. Serjeant. 

Oct. 12. Two Model Lessons — Infant and Scripture Classes. Sub- 
ject: "Paul at Athens and Corinth." Acts xvii. 10-31. Mr. Bailey. 



Appendix. 173 

Oct. 19. Practice Lesson — Infant Class. Subject: :J The Reign of 
Josiah." 2 Chron. xxxiv, 1-28. By a Member of the Class. 

Oct. 2G. Sketches of Lessons — For Infant, Elementary. Scripture, 
and Senior Classes', fifteen ninutes each. By Four Members of the 
Class. Subject: " The Way of Life— Holiness." Phil. iii. 

Nov. 2. Preparation Class — As October 5. Subject: "Paul at 
Ephesus." Acts xix. Conducted by Rev. J. F. Serjeant. 

Nov. 9. Lecture — " Recent Discoveries in the East; their Relation 
to the Bible." Mr. J. T. Cox. 

Nov. 16. Practice Lessons — Elementary Class. Subject: "Paul 
a Prisoner." Acts xxiii. By a Member of the Class. 

Nov. 23. Essay — " On Addresses and Devotional Exercises in 
Sunday-Schools;" illustrated by an Address to Children. Mr. Meen. 

Nov. 30. Practice Lesson — Scripture Class. Subject: "Paul's 
Defense of Himself." Acts xxv, xxvi. By a Member of the Class. 

Dec. 7. Preparation Class — As October 5. Subject: "The Re- 
turn from Captivity." Ezra i, iii. 

Dec. 14. Sketches of Addresses to Children— Fifteen minutes 
each. By Three Members of the Class. 

Dec. 21. Lecture — "Sunday-School Psalmody," with Yocal Illus- 
trations. 

To commence each evening at half past seven o'clock. 

Each lesson will be given to a class of children, who will be dismissed 
immediately on its termination. 

At the close of the "Model* Lessons" members are at liberty to 
ask for information or explanation. At the close of the "Practice 
Lessons" members may criticise and comment on the performance. 

Rev. Dr. Robert Steel, in his work on "The Christian Teacher in 
Sunday-Schools," devotes a chapter to "The Teachers' College," in 
which he recognizes the work already accomplished in this direction 
in America. We make copious extracts: 

How can Sabbath-school teachers have the means or the leisure to 
enter on a proper course of instruction ? We are prepared to meet 
these important and practical queries. No costly apparatus is requisite. 
A church or school of moderate size is quite sufficient. The clerical 
talent in any town is capable of giving systematic instruction in most 
of the branches of sacred science indicated already. Ministers have 

*The word "Model" has since been dispensed with, as it has led to considerable 
misapprehension. 



174 Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 

themselves gone over the same fields of study. They require to keep 
themselves abreast of the age. and may, therefore, be supposed to be 
equipped for the duty. Besides, it would tend to keep up their studious 
pursuits in those subjects of such importance. It would react on 
their ordinary studies, and, perhaps, tend to give a new zest and 
animation to all their work. For the more practical and illustrative 
instruction some one minister may have superior qualifications, or, 
tailing such, distinguished teachers of day-schools, or inspectors of 
schools who are Christian men, might be found to render very effective 
service. The expense of the college for Sunday-school teachers would, 
therefore, be very small. The time required must agree with the 
ordinary avocations and little leisure of most who engage in Sabbath- 
school instruction. We cannot be exacting. We must proceed slowly 
yet surely. What we would propose, then, would be, that one hour 
a week, for twenty-one weeks of the winter season, be given to a class 
in the college. In the course of three winters a considerable amount 
of work could be done, and the teachers would reap great profit. We 
will indicate such a course : 

THE FIRST YEAR THERE MIGHT BE TWENTY- ONE 
LECTURES, AS FOLLOWS: 

I. Six on "Jewish Antiquities." 1. The Holy Land. 2. The Cities. 
3. The History of the People. 4. Civil and Political Institutions. 
5. Social and Domestic Economy. 6. Occupations of the People. 

II. Six on ' Systematic Theology " Comprehending the Doctrine 
relating to God the Father, the Sou, and the Holy Ghost. 

III. Six on the " Evidences of Christianity." 1. The Genuineness 
and Authenticity of the New Testament. 2. Miracles. 3. The Fulfill- 
ment of Prophecy. 4. The Moral Influence of Christianity. 5. The 
Experimental Evidence. 6. Inspiration. 

IV. Three on the "Art of Teaching," with an Illustrative Class. 

THE SECOND YEAR. TWENTY- ONE LECTURES. 

I. Six on the "Jewish Church and its Ministry." 1. The Patriarchal 
Dispensation. 2. The Exodus. 3. The Tabernable and Temple, and 
their Ministers. 4. Sacrifices and Festivals. 5. The Schools of the 
Prophets. 6. The Development of the Messianic Doctrine. 

II. Six on "Systematic Theology," including Doctrines relating to 
Man. 

III. Six on the "History of the Christian Church." 1. Christ and 
the Apostles. 2. The Apostolical Fathers and the Nicene Age. 



Appendix. 175 

3. The Middle Ages. 4. The Reformers. 5. The Puritans. 6. Mod- 
ern Revivals. 
IV. Three on the " Art of Teaching," with an Illustrative Class. 

THE THIRD YEAR. TWENTY-ONE LECTURES. 

I. Six on the " Interpretation of Scripture." 1. The Canon of Script- 
ure. 2. Unity of Revelation. 3. Rules of Interpretation. 4. Types 
and Symbols. 5. Prophecy. 6. Difficulties of Scripture. 

II. Six on "Systematic Theology," including the Doctrines relating 
to Redemption. * 

III. Six on the "History of a Particular Church." 

IY. Three on the "Art of Teaching," with an Illustrative Class. 

By this scheme the work of instruction could be divided among dif- 
ferent clergymen, none of whom would have more than six lectures in 
a winter. If there were three in a town, the labor would not be ex- 
cessive, and if more, there would be greater choice of more suitable 
lecturers. In the course of three years, sketched above, one might 
take the Systematic Theology all through, while different persons might 
take the others. The lecture need not be more than an hour in length, 
and if an additional half hour were required it would not be grudged. 
But if the half hour could be spent in oral examination on the previous 
lecture it would be found of great benefit. 

It is scarcely to be expected that all Sabbath-school teachers could 
attend; but some who are not at the time engaged in teaching might 
be present. If the half, or even the third, of the teachers in a school 
attended such a course of instruction, their profiting would appear 
to all their fellow-laborers, and would tend to elevate and improve 
the others. We remember well, when the late Dr. Chalmers gave a 
few lectures to his theological students on the ^ History of Speculative 
Philosophy of the Nineteenth Century," which has been published by 
J. D. Morell, LL.D., he remarked that if he could only interest four 
out of two hundred students who heard him in the studies suggested 
by his lectures, he felt assured their influence would tell on all the rest. 
So would it be were only a few of the teachers of a school attending the 
course in the college — their influence would affect all, and many would 
be excited to study and to improve. If the teachers of six schools 
in a town thus combined there might be a class of twenty-five, or even 
fifty. Mauy a learned professor has been sustained in splendid build- 
ings to instruct a smaller class. 

Something such as has been indicated above has been in operation 
for several years — since 1862 — in connection with the Sunday-School 

12 



170 Sunday- School Teachees' Institute. 

Union in London. It is called the Sunday-School Union Normal College. 
with a president and secretary.. There are regular classes kept up 
weekly during the winter months from October to April. One is called 
the Educational class, which meets fortnightly — the object of this is to 
study the principles and art of teaching. There is also a, Biblical Littra- 
tura class, which engages in the study cf the Bible and its interpreta- 
tion. During one session the following were the subjects of lectures 
in the Educational class: 

I. Ti e Sunday-school, past, present, and future. The teacher's 
work, and the qualifications necessary D insure success. The nature 
of a child's intellectual and moral growth considered in relation to the 
Sunday-school. 

II. The characteristics of childhood considered in relation to the 
work of the Sabbath-school, and practical hints for the young teachers. 
Points to be enlarged upon. The love of activity; its use and abuse. 
The love of knowledge ; its design and importance. The susceptibility 
of children to sympathy ; its power and importance. The readiness 
with which habits are formed. 

III. The characteristics of childhood, (continued.) Points to be con- 
sidered. The love of approbation ; rules for its cultivation and control. 
The want of attention. Rules for the cultivation of attention and 
memory. 

IV. The twofold work of the Sunday-school teacher, namely, to 
educate and instruct. The difference in these, and what will accom- 
plish the end in view. Examples of the failures of teachers in this 
respect. Practical hints and rules for the young teacher. 

Y. On the subjects of instruction suited to the moral and intellectual 
development of a child. Moral instruction; its place and importance. 
Method of developing moral ideas. Illustrative teaching; when it 
ought to be used. Method of conducting it. 

YI. The same subject continued. Parabolic teaching ; its importance ; 
what age ic is most fitted for. Methods of working out parables. 
Doctrines ; their importance and place. Methods of dealing with them. 

VII. The importance of graduating the subjects of instruction to suit 
the age of the children. 

VIII. The different modes of communicating religious instruction.- 
The importance of making the children a itive agents, not mere passive 
receivers. Illustrations of the different modes exemplified in dealing 
with some of the '• Union Lessons.'' Value of Aarious methods tested. 

IX. The importance of careful preparation of the lesson to be taught. 
Aids to preparation. The proper tise of the Union notes. Illustra- 
tions of sketches for the teachers use. 



Appendix. 177 

X. On the art of questioning. The value of good questions. Dif- 
ferent sorts of questions. The value of each tested. Rules for the 
formation of questions. Examples of the application of lessons ques- 
tioned our. 

XL On the government of children in general, aud of the Sundny- 
school in particular. Different modes of government; which most 
suited to children of different ages and different characters. 

XII. On rewards and punishments in general, and the Suuday- 
school in particular. The use and abuse of rewards. The insufficient 
nature of the punishments. The importance of a sound judgment in 
these matters. 

XIII. The teacher out of school. How he may influence his chil- 
dren for good. The connection between school and home. Plans for 
influencing the home of the scholars. 

XIV. The missing link in our Sunday-school system. How to sup- 
ply this. Success of seuior classes ; yet more efforts needed to make 
the school a nursery for the Church. Plans. A general review of the 
previous lectures. 

During the same year, or session, the following course of lectures 
were delivered to the class of Biblical Literature : 

I. Palestine, its geographical position, limited extent, central situa- 
tion, and natural boundaries. A land of mountains, hills,, and caverns. 
Historical results. Scripture allusions. 

II. Palestine and Egypt, a contrast. Moses' description. The 
goodly land. The Jordan and its tributaries. The valley of the 
Jordan. Lakes and seaboard. The Kislion and the Kedron. Wells, 
and their importance. Scripture allusions. 

III. Climate; on what its varieties depend. Causes which modify 
it. Illustrations. Climate of Palestine; its remarkable peculiarities. 
Bearing of this fact on Scripture imagery. Past and present relation 
of climate to vegetation. Distribution of vegetable life. Vegetation 
of Palestine ; general features. 

IV. Vegetation of Palestine, (continued.) Historic trees. Scripture 
allusions. Flowers of Palestine. Dependence of animal on vegetable 
life. Ancient fauna of Palestine; quadrupeds, birds, reptiles, fishes, 
insects. 

V. Earliest inhabitants. Patriarchal age. Division of the land 
"by Joshua. Allotments of the tribes. The kingdom under David 
and Solomon. Its subsequent re-division. Cities. Villages. New 
Testament localities. 

VI. Eastern and Western homes. Jewish dwellings. Tents. 



ITS Sunday- School Teachers' Institute, 

Houses. Forms and construction of houses, doors, and windows. 
Scripture allusions. Furniture — tables, seats. Modes of warming 
and lighting. Beds and couches. 

YH. Jewish costume. Ornaments and jewels. Amenities of social 
life. Modes of salutation. Food. Entertainment of friends. Rites 
of hospitality. 

YIII. Occupation of the Jews. Shepherd life ; influence on national 
character ; how far maintained by Jews. Jewish agriculture. Culti- 
vated products of the country. Agricultural implements. Irrigation. 

IX. The Jewish seasons. Agricultural operations peculiar to each 
month ; plowing, sowing, barley-harvest, vintage. The Jewish years, 
measurement of time, and modes of reckoning. Scripture illustrations. 
Other Jewish trades and professions. 

X. Arts and education. Writing and writing materials. Books 
and letters. Home education. Schools of the prophets. Jewish 
scribes and doctors. Music, musical instruments, and singing. 

XL Military affairs. The encampment in the wilderness. The 
army under Joshua. Ancient levies in the time of the judges. Arms 
and armor. Treatment of captives. Condition of slaves and servants. 

XII. Birth of children among the Jews ; festivities. Position of 
women at different periods. Marriage customs; betrothal; nuptial 
ceremonies. Funeral rites. Modes of sepulture. " A land of tombs." 
Conclusion. 

There is also a preparation class and a practice or model class, con- 
ducted by competent teachers. Each of the two first-named classes 
commenced with between sixty and seventy members. And they had 
gone on improving. As many as two hundred teachers have been in 
attendance. 

Something of this sort might be established in every city, and even 
in every town. The expenses of the college in London is a class-fee 
of one shilling or half-a-croicn per scholar, which scholar may or may 
not be a teacher affiliated with the Union. Those who are affiliated 
paj r an annual subscription to the Union. 

Similar places for the improvement of teachers have been com- 
menced in America by the Methodist Episcopal Church, which has 
nearly a million of scholars under its care in that great country. The 
plan is so simple, so inexpensive, and calculated to be so useful, that 
it may be extended over all the towns of the Christian world. The 
advantage to teachers would be immense. It would give them a 
greater intelligence, higher culture, and better adaptation. The ad- 
vantage to scholars would be correspondingly great, and would improve 



Appendix. 179 

their knowledge of Christian truth, their ability to read the Bible 
to advantage, and also to think on holy themes. The advantage to 
the whole Church would be great. It would promote a higher Chris- 
tian thought and life, and raise up a nobler race to be witnesses and 
workers for Christ in a future so big with hope and so brigh twith the 
promises of God. 

4. Mr. B. D. Pask, of London, is engaged in this good work. He 
has in course of preparation a volume entitled " Introductory Class 
Text-Book." At a Conference held in September, 18*70, at Blooms- 
bury Chapel, London, 

" Bev. TV. Brock, D.D., introduced Mr. Pask, of whom he spoke in 
the highest terms as to his fitness for this work, and said that if he did 
not meet with sufficient support he could find ample work for him in 
his own schools. Mr. Pask gave an interesting outline of the course 
of study and the methods adopted in the Introductory Class. The 
accompanying Programme will show the subjects dealt with. In the 
Sunday Class the Courses are taken on alternate Sundays, and, 
together with 'practice days,' last about twelve months; the practice 
consisting of preparing lessons, illustrative lessons, etc. The object in 
the Biblical Course is not to study the contents of the Bible, but to guide 
and assist in such a private study as will be helpful to Sunday-school 
teachers. The technical course will aid the students to become intel- 
ligent and efficient instructors and moral trainers of the young. In the 
Thursday Class the Courses are taken on alternate winters. At the 
close each student returns to the school from whence he or she came." 

Programme of Study. 

Biblical Course. 

1. — Introduction. Object of Class — Plan of Study. 

2. — Aims of a Sunday-School Teacher. 

3 — Requisites for Attainment of Aims. 

4. — The Bible. Its Genuineness — The English Translation. 

5. — " Its Authenticity and Authority. 

6. — " Its Peculiarities as a Revelation. 

7. — " Its Interpretation — General Rules. 

8. — " Its Interpretation, Allegories, Parables, Types, and 

Symbols. 

9. — " Rules for Study of Doctrines and Precepts. 

10. — u Rules for Study of Promises and Examples. 

11. — " Rules for Inferential Study — Drawing Lessons. 



ISO Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 

12. — Chronological Study, including History and Geography — 

Creation to Abraham. 
13. — " " Abraham to Moses. 

14. — " " Moses to Solomon. 

]5. — ,; " Solomon to Captivity. 

16. — " " Eestoration to Malachi. 

IT. — " " Malachi to Alexander the Great. 

18. — " " Alexander to Herod the Great. 

19. — " " Herod to End ofXew Testament History. 

20. — " " Manners and Customs. 

2sTote.— As a Text -Book for this Course, Dr. Angus's u Bible Hand-Book " is used. 
Technical Course. 



1. — Mental Nature. 


First Truths. 


2.— 


Analysis of. 


3.— 


Order of Development. 


4.— 


Ideas and ^ords. 


5.— 


Attention. 


6.— 


Memory. 


7.— 


Judgment. 


8. — Art of Teaching. Principles of. 


9.— " 


Methods. Object Lesson and Ellipse. 


10.— 


Pictorial. 


11.— 


''' Illustrative. 


12.— 


" • Interrogative. 


13. — Construction of 


Lessons. General Principles. 


14.— 


Special Cases. 


15.— Moral Xature. 


First Truths — Conscience. 


16.— 


Analysis of. 


17.— " 


Motives. 


18.— 


The Win. 


19.— 


Principles and Methods of Moral Training. 


20.— 


The Bible as a Moral Instrument. 


21. — Order. 





Xote.— At the Sunday Afternoon Class the above Courses are taken alternate 
Sundays. At the Thursday Evening Class they are taken, each complete, alternate 
winters. The Techjticai, Covese will be taken for the ensuing winter, 1570-71. 

In a note to the author of this volume Mr. Pask says, (August, 1871.) 

" I have met with tolerable success, though not so many persons 

have gone through the Course as I could desire. More than one 

hundred young men and women have, however, been under my care." 



Appendix. 1S1 

5. In "Barnard's American Journal of Education," (1863,) in a 
paper entitled ''Professional Training of Teachers,' : we find recom- 
mended the employment of "Itinerating Normal Agents and Organ- 
izers of Schools to hold Teachers' Institutes, to act as Inspectors 
of Schools, assist in the establishment of new institutions and im- 
part life and efficiency to schools which have run down under 
inefficient teachers, and bring up to a normal standard the schools 
and the public sentiment of particular districts. The efforts of an 
indefatigable Normal Agent like William S. Baker, so highly appre- 
ciated in Connecticut and Ehode Island, or a School Organizer like 
those sent out by the Commissioners of National Education in Ire- 
land or the British and Foreign School Society, by familiar conver- 
sation with teachers and practical illustrations in their school-rooms 
of approved methods of arranging the studies and conducting schools, 
will reach more widely than a Normal School." 

6. From the same valuable work we quote the following facts 
relative to the historical development of Normal Schools and Teach- 
ers' Seminaries in the world of secular culture: 

" The first school specially destined for educating and training 
teachers in the principles and practice of their profession was insti- 
tuted by the Abbe de La Salle while Canon of the Cathedal at Rheitns 
in 1681, and was perfected into the Institute of the Brothers of the 
Christian Schools in 1684. 

"In 1679 Augustus Herman Franke founded, in connection with 
his Orphan- school at Halle, a teachers' class, composed of poor students, 
who assisted him certain hours in the day in his schools in return 
for their board and instruction. Out of these he selected about the 
year 1704, twelve, who exhibited the right basis of piety, knowledge, 
and aptness to teach, and constituted them his 'Seminarium Precep- 
torium,' or Teachers' Seminary. 

" In 1735 the first regular seminary for teachers in Prussia was 
established in Pomerania, and the second at Berlin in 1748, by Hecker, 
a pupil of Franke. 

"Normal Schools were introduced into Hanover in 1757; into 
Austria in 1767; into Switzerland in 1805; into France in 1808; 
into Holland in 1816; into Belgium in 1843. and into England in 
1842. 



182 Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 

" The earliest suggestion of institutional provision for the specific 
preparation of teachers in the United States which we have met with 
appeared in the 'Massachusetts Magazine' for June, 1189, in an 
article by Elisha Ticknor advocating the establishment of county 
schools in order to fit young gentlemen for college and school-keeping. 

"In 1816 Denison Olmsted, in his Master's Oration in the com- 
mencement exercises of Tale College, (where he was afterward pro- 
fessor,) proposed the establishment, by the State of Connecticut, of an 
academy to train schoolmasters for the State of Connecticut. 

" In 1823 Eev. Samuel Read Hall opened a select school at Con- 
cord, Yermont, in which he advertised to give a course of instruction 
adapted to teachers." 



NATIONAL CONVENTION ANNOUNCED FOR 
APRIL, 1872. 

[TO BE HELD AT INDIANAPOLIS.] 



GENERAL PROGRAMME. 



A preliminary meeting will be held on Tuesday 
evening, April 16th, for greeting and praise. 

The adjournment to be with the session of Friday 
afternoon, April 19th. 

The general topic for the first morning session, on 
Wednesday, to be. 

The Field, 

Under which head the reports from States shall be 
heard, each report limited to five minutes. Reports 
from national Sunday-school organizations to be pre- 
sented in writing for insertion in the minutes, but not 
read to the Convention. Foreign delegations to be 
received, and correspondence to be read. 

Wednesday afternoon, a separate meeting of normal 
instructors and of choristers to be held, as also a gen- 
eral Convention meeting. 

The Seed. 

On Wednesday evening the general topic to be 
" The Seed, the Word of God," especially with refer- 
ence to a national uniformity of topics for Sunday- 



184 Sunday- School Teachers' Institute. 

school study. The first address in favor of national 
uniformity, the second opposed to it ; followed by 
live-minute speeches : the discussion closed by the 
brother who opens in the affirmative. Opening ad- 
dresses, thirty minutes each. 

The Sowers. 

Thursday morning the general topic to be " The 
Sowers of the Word," in the family, the sanctuary, 
and the school, each topic opened by a twenty-min- 
ute address, and each followed by general discussion. 

On Thursday afternoon, separate meetings to be 
held for pastors, for superintendents, and for officers 
of State, national, or foreign organizations. Also a 
general meeting. 

The Sowing. 

Thursday evening the topic to be " The Sowing ; 
or, Methods of Work." Concerted teaching and class 
teaching each to be considered in an opening address, 
and followed by general discussion. 

The Harvest. 

On Friday morning the general topic to be " The 
Harvest : Results of Work." 

Friday afternoon, session to be held for the closing 
addresses. 

There will be a Sunday-School Museum in an apart- 
ment separate from that in which the Convention 
meets, the details of the arrangements to be left to 
the Local Committee. 



INDEX. 



Page 
Aim of Sunday-School 9 

Books, Normal Class Text 146 

Certificates, Sunday-School Normal Class 141 

Church. Normal Class 132 

Conventions, Sunday-School 19 

Courses of Study 59, 142, 174, 179 

Department, Normal 60, 137 

Diploma, Sunday-School Normal 141 

Institute, History of Secular 181 

, First Sunday-School 63 

, Constitution of 57 

, Local 56 

Institutes, Public School 20, 21, 181 

Institute, Sunday-School Defined 22 

, Exercises 23, 89 

International Sunday-School College 61 

Kidder, Kev. Dr.. 171 

London Normal Class 172 

London Sunday-School Union 71 

Mission Sunday School 9 

Mnemonic Drills 89 

Model Exercises 35 

National Sunday-School Convention 101, 1 82 

Normal Agents 181 



186 Index. 

Page 

Normal Class, Church , 132 

Normal Department 60, 131 

Officers, Sunday-School Institute 114 

Pardee, E. Gr., Esq 13 

Pask, Mr. B. D 119 

Preparation Needed by Teachers 13 

for an Institute 109 

Programme. Normal Class 151 

, Specimen 63 

, Unity in 45 

Secular Education 11, 19 

Seminary Normal Class 61, 153 

Senior Scholars 131 

Specimen Exercises 35 

Steele, Rev. Robert 113 

Superintendents' Institute 49 

Teachers' Meetings 11, 129 

Teacher of Normal Class 161 

, Sunday-School Needs Preparation 10 

Theological Seminary 60, 136 

Topics for Institutes Ill 

Training Teachers 32 

Union Institutes 69 






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